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Originally Posted by abookreader
Absolutely. I'd also note that much of the traditional role of slogging through the slush piles of manuscripts to find the "gems" is now done by Agents and not Publishers. Very few publishers accept inquiries from authors anymore.
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A few do, but for the most part, they only accept submissions from recognized agents. People who
do accept unsolicited manuscripts get deluged with enormous amounts of slush, the vast majority of which should never have been submitted.
Nobody likes
reading slush, and with the economics getting steadily rougher for publishers, nobody wants to
pay anybody to read slush.
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I actually see more Agents infiltrating into the role of "Publisher" over the next couple of years. Agents providing editing services and Agents providing eBook Production Services. Agents selling eBook directly via their own websites.
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It's happening already, witness
Oddysey Editions,, a project by literary agent Andrew Wylie, to sell ebook editions via the Kindle store of backlist titles by his clients. Wylie claimed dissatisfaction with royalty rates paid on ebooks, and also claimed the publishers did not have the electronic rights.
In another instance, former HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman formed
Open Road Integrated Media to re-issue work in electronic format.
But note the common factor: the works being handled by these ventures are backlist titles by authors who
already established an audience through traditional publishing.
Agents who do this will be doing so for proven sellers who proved it through traditional publishing, and already have a track record and an audience. I think it will be some time, if at all, before we see a venture like this handling a new author peddling a first novel.
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Dennis