Fight Club Author apologises to Publishers. And Pirates!

[darryl]

Very interesting link. I'll allow it to speak for itself.

Chuck Palahniuk on theft by Agency Employee

[GlenBarrington]

No one can look after you like you will. Trust, but verify.

And someone's mother's Alzheimers, is not an excuse to not pay royalties.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by darryl

Very interesting link. I'll allow it to speak for itself.

Chuck Palahniuk on theft by Agency Employee

Not the first person to have an agent steal from them, won't be the last. The movie, music and sports industry is littered with examples. The Reagan principle (trust but verify) applies to Russians, teenagers and people you trust with your money. (as a note, it's not just agents, it's also financial advisors - just look up Bernie Madoff. )

[sealbeater]

https://torrentfreak.com/fight-club-...-rants-180602/


From the article:

For years, novelist Chuck Palahniuk saw piracy as one of the reasons behind his dwindling income. People were 'stealing' his books without paying for them, after all. However, last weekend it turned out that the real thief was closer to home than he ever imagined, and in no way linked to piracy.

When it comes to the link between piracy and sales, there are thousands of different opinions. This applies to music, movies, software and many other digital products, including ebooks.

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“So on the minus side, I apologize for cursing my publishers. And I apologize for any rants about piracy. My publishers had paid the royalties. Piracy, when it existed, was small scale.

“I do hereby humbly apologize,” Palahniuk concludes.

End article


Maybe more authors need to review their books.

[DiapDealer]

Moderator Notice
That's not FROM the article. That IS the article in its entirety. I'm going to snip it and merge it with the pre-existing discussion about this.

[fjtorres]

Pahlaniuk's problems are most likely just beginning.
The Agency in question is facing bankruptcy and will most likely drag him along into a years long legal mess.

KKR has some thoughts on the matter:

https://kriswrites.com/2018/05/30/bu...mare-revealed/

Because The Post says that Donadio & Olson are “on the brink of bankruptcy.” If that is indeed the case, and the writers have a standard (shitty) agency agreement with the agency, then each property the agency represented will become an asset of any bankruptcy.

In other words, the writer will lose control of their books. A bankruptcy court will decide the book’s future, including what happens to its future earnings.

The writer will have no say in this because the writer had already agreed to give partial ownership to their agent.

So, in addition to those decades of financial losses, which are probably unrecoverable, the writer might lose all rights to and all control of the very work that earns them a living. In the least egregious circumstance, the writer will have to hire an attorney to extricate the writer from the bankrupt agency.

[darryl]

KKR is not a lawyer, but she does her homework on these things, and knows her business. Literary agents owe their existence to publishers who essentially outsourced the job of finding new books for publication to them. Authors who wanted to be published had little option but to engage an agent. If, of course, they could find one who would deign to accept them. But, thanks largely to Amazon, agents are superfluous. Why would you want an English major with close ties with publishers to negotiate contracts for you? To look after your money? To in fact receive it first because they don't trust you to pay them? KKR has made very plain that in her view authors do not need and should not hire agents. She seems to have a new convert in Chuck Palahniuk!

If this is a reputable agency I would hate to see a non-reputable one. Yes, there is no reason to believe that the agency itself or its principals behaved in a criminal fashion. But it seems their business practices and procedures left a lot to be desired. Was there no audit conducted? With other peoples money involved? We will, I suspect, find out at some time in the coming years. I feel very sorry for the authors concerned. It is a tragedy that iconic works like The Godfather and Fight Club may be caught up in this mess.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by darryl

KKR is not a lawyer, but she does her homework on these things, and knows her business. Literary agents owe their existence to publishers who essentially outsourced the job of finding new books for publication to them. Authors who wanted to be published had little option but to engage an agent. If, of course, they could find one who would deign to accept them. But, thanks largely to Amazon, agents are superfluous. Why would you want an English major with close ties with publishers to negotiate contracts for you? To look after your money? To in fact receive it first because they don't trust you to pay them? KKR has made very plain that in her view authors do not need and should not hire agents. She seems to have a new convert in Chuck Palahniuk!

If this is a reputable agency I would hate to see a non-reputable one. Yes, there is no reason to believe that the agency itself or its principals behaved in a criminal fashion. But it seems their business practices and procedures left a lot to be desired. Was there no audit conducted? With other peoples money involved? We will, I suspect, find out at some time in the coming years. I feel very sorry for the authors concerned. It is a tragedy that iconic works like The Godfather and Fight Club may be caught up in this mess.

Some people will want agents, some people will want to do it on their own. I think that pointing to one crooked agent and claiming that it tars all agents is an extreme position. I also think that if you look hard enough, you are going to find someone who complains about eternal life, so simply pointing at a small number of authors who don't like agents doesn't really prove anything. One can also point at a large number of authors who really like the services that agents provide.

Some authors just like to write and want someone else to handle all the business aspects of writing. That's the service that agents provide. If an author wants to go it alone via Amazon, then more power to them. I seriously doubt that agents and agencies will disappear anytime in the near future.

Years ago, the productivity expert, Peter Drucker, wrote a paper on productivity and knowledge workers. He said that the number one thing that you can do to make a knowledge worker more productive is remove the "chores", i.e. the tasks that do not directly relate to their primary function. For writers, the primary function is writing. That's a big reason why many authors prefer to have an agent and publisher to handle all the chores, while the author focuses on writing. It's the same reason that many nonfiction writers have research assistants. Not all authors want that, but dismissing the value of agents and publishers out of hand really isn't a particularly valid approach.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by darryl

KKR is not a lawyer, but she does her homework on these things, and knows her business. Literary agents owe their existence to publishers who essentially outsourced the job of finding new books for publication to them. Authors who wanted to be published had little option but to engage an agent. If, of course, they could find one who would deign to accept them. But, thanks largely to Amazon, agents are superfluous. Why would you want an English major with close ties with publishers to negotiate contracts for you? To look after your money? To in fact receive it first because they don't trust you to pay them? KKR has made very plain that in her view authors do not need and should not hire agents. She seems to have a new convert in Chuck Palahniuk!

If this is a reputable agency I would hate to see a non-reputable one. Yes, there is no reason to believe that the agency itself or its principals behaved in a criminal fashion. But it seems their business practices and procedures left a lot to be desired. Was there no audit conducted? With other peoples money involved? We will, I suspect, find out at some time in the coming years. I feel very sorry for the authors concerned. It is a tragedy that iconic works like The Godfather and Fight Club may be caught up in this mess.

There is room for some kind of intermediary for people looking to deal with tradpubs but the problem is that, unlike with real estate agents, there is no body certifying literary agents. Anybody off the street can proclaim themselves a literary agent. And in the cozy incestuous corporate publishing culture there is no regard for modern business practices or transparency. On the contrary, murkiness is preferred. Well, intentional murkiness and lax internal practices just bit a bunch of folks in the gluteus maximus. A 7 to 8 figure bite.

The key recommendation of today's business world remains: whenever you deal with a corporation on affairs of money, hire a lawyer. In this case, an IP lawyer. Regardless of whether you believe in literary agents or not. The other guys have a swarm of sharks so it only makes sense to bring your own shark to the party. It's not as if they charge 15% in perpetuity.

Penny wise, pound foolish.
Or as repeated above: trust but verify. Which translates to: blindly trust nobody.

[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.

[pwalker8]

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.

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.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

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.

I'm generally not a big fan of regulation either. However, when you have an industry routinely handling their client's money this aspect at least cries out for it.

[sealbeater]

Originally Posted by darryl

I'm generally not a big fan of regulation either. However, when you have an industry routinely handling their client's money this aspect at least cries out for it.

All the regulation bills will be written by the lawyers for the industry, if history is any indicator.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by sealbeater

All the regulation bills will be written by the lawyers for the industry, if history is any indicator.

Don't disagree with you. Don't know about the US, but in Australia some industries "self-regulate" so as to avoid government regulation, and go so far that they are probably as bad or worse than anything government would have put into place.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by darryl

Don't disagree with you. Don't know about the US, but in Australia some industries "self-regulate" so as to avoid government regulation, and go so far that they are probably as bad or worse than anything government would have put into place.

It is self-defense by the legitimate/competent operators.
It weeds out fly-by-night-ers to protect the reputation of the sector.
It also, conveniently, reduces competition.

Certification serves honest players, whether it be state- or industry-policed.

Most honest industries and professions maintain minimum standards, whether craftmen like plumbers/electricians, or professionals like Engineers, Doctors, accountants, etc.

Lack of certification in a long established sector suggests a fear of *any* policing. A red flag right there.