HuffPo via
Crain's reports that Amazon flew some impressive agent big wigs to Amz-HQ in Seattle in order to reassure the worried little fellows that just because Kindle is turning reading into an eBook experience, "they are not trying to destroy publishing as we know it." So let's just go with that, then. ("Amazon is not entirely used to their role as the evil empire," said one anonymous agent, probably the same dumbass who rejected you last week.) As long as everyone is convinced that this is not Amazon's intent....even if it IS the result of eBooks and the Interwebs...I guess we're all okay. We'll just continue in a hazy fog of uncertainty and denial. We'll just keep
not buying books unless somehow featuring Brittney Spears, Michael Jackson, or vampires. Okay? Okay, good talk.
UPDATE: This
on the topic from the
New York Times.
5 comments:
Hmm..., agents are certainly accustomed to their role as defenders of another evil empire, the publishing houses who refuse to produce anything but Brytnni, MJ, and vampyre books.
"Oh, you say can't sell literary novels, well then, I just won't bother trying to represent them to you. I'll get back to rejecting anything that isn't a celebrity memoir. God knows it isn't my place to try to raise the standards. I got an MFA for employment credentials, not because I give a care about art."
Yeah, great work there, agents. Memo to anonymous agent, Amazon just stocks and sells what publishers produce. Electronic or paper, crap is still crap. Don't be blind to your role in this.
Increasingly, I'm having trouble feeling anything stronger than pity for agents.
I've encountered lots of them who seem genuinely distressed at how impossible it is to sell anything of quality these days. In fact, my biggest gripe with agents is that the ones I like (& who like me) keep quitting to pursue other fields because they're so dejected with the scene right now. I've lost two agents that way so far.
Plus, the days are numbered for their profession & I think the smarter of them know it. There simply aren't enough celebrity memoirs or vampire novels to employ all of them. And that's pretty much all that's left of the publishing industry now.
Save your ire for the corporate goons who took over and then wrecked the book business. They're the real schmucks.
Agents whining that $9.99 is too low for ebooks? They are really behind the times. Nobody buys $25 hardcovers anymore, they can just wait for the $12 paperback to come out later. And anyway, $9.99 for an ebook is probably generating more profit for publishers and authors because publishers don't have to pay those pesky dead tree costs.
I hope Amazon was just blowing smoke when they said they weren't going to court some authors directly. Cutting out a middle man is always a step forward in business. I'm actually excited about these possible changes in publishing industry, and I'm in the lowly position of having absolutely nothing to lose. ;)
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