Quote:
Originally Posted by darryl
I"m sure there are many, or at least some, honest agents with good intentions. But even the best of them have had at least a high potential for conflict of interest. And at least anecdotally many simply lack qualifications to perform many of the tasks involved. Unfortunately, given human nature, it is like an author putting their head in a noose to take the attitude that they are creative types too elevated to worry about the mundane day to day aspects of the commercial world. There is certainly room for agencies to help authors, and some authors may wish to avail themselves of their services. But to do so under the existing environment is asking for trouble in so many ways. Perhaps regulation is the answer.
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I'm pretty sure that regulation is rarely the answer. Regulators are frequently captured by the industry they are suppose to regulate. As mentioned above, real estate agents are "regulated", but it doesn't really mean much. My SIL is a real estate agent. She's one of the better ones locally, doing a lot to provide value to her customers, even if they don't always listen. There are a lot who aren't very good. It's pretty much the way the world works, unlike Lake Wobegone, not everyone is above average.