Hi,
First of all, I should say that I have a lot of respect for Jessica Faust as an agent. I think I queried her last year, and I'm pretty sure I got a form rejection. None of that affected the esteem with which I held her in.
I admire many of the authors she represents and the books she has championed. I've also been an on-off reader of her blog for quite some time.
However, I have concerns about Beyond the Page.
I think there are a few things tangled up here.
#1 BookEnds have clients which are self-publishing without their assistance. BookEnds do none of the work, and their clients pay them nothing. BookEnds say they are fine with this as long as they are kept in the loop. That's fine. Great even.
#2 BookEnds are proposing assisting clients with certain aspects of their self-publishing ventures for their standard 15% fee. This is similar (as outlined, they are a little short on details) to what DGLM have proposed (as well as a number of other agencies). I don't have a problem with this
on principle. Some very valid questions could be asked of any agency offering what I would classify as a "project management" service like this, about how whether they have the core competencies, what resources they are going to put behind it, whether they would be any good at it, and so on. For me, the agent's financial interests are still aligned with the author, as they will be motivated to advise on the approach they feel will make the author the most money - whether that's a publishing deal or self-publishing. If I was an author considering this service I would have a string of questions about how it would work in practical terms, and whether the contract was term-limited, whether I had an "out" if I was unhappy or they were under-performing. But,
on principle, I would have no objection.
#3 BookEnds have set up an e-publishing arm called Beyond The Page. They will be controlling the rights. There will be a publishing contract. The authors will receive royalties. I'm not sure why this is being labelled as self-publishing of any kind. To me it's quite clear, it's not self-publishing. They are setting up a publishing company.
I have no problem with #1 and #2 (with the above caveats). #3 is where the major issue lies .
There are potential conflict of interest issues here. Courtney Milan's response in the
initial comments following the announcement gives a quick summary of the potential issues. As does Lisa Hendrix.
Courtney Milan expanded on the conflict of interest issue in particular in the
second part of her "open letter" to agents, which I highly recommend reading.
Passive Guy (another lawyer) has been excellent on this issue too. I recommend
reading his take here, and his suggested ways that publishing agents may avoid many potential conflict of interest issues
here.
The FAQ for Beyond The Page is pretty sparse, but BookEnds have said that they will be updating it in the coming week.
I hope they deal with some of the unanswered questions on that thread. Some people were unnecessarily insulting and aggressive, but there were others with valid concerns.
I asked what the royalty split would be, but they said they didn't want to disclose that to protect the privacy of the authors. One commenter said it was a 50/50 split of "net", but that hasn't been confirmed or denied, and that would itself would invite questions about the definition of "net".
It appears, from the answers in the comments, that BookEnds will continue to represent authors they publish through Beyond The Page, and will extend offers of representation to non-client authors they publish.
I think this is where the core problem lies. Who advises BookEnds clients to take the Beyond The Page deal? Who advises them on the contract? Who advises them when they have some issue with their publisher?
As noted in the original announcement thread, the AAR code of ethics states quite clearly that "Members shall not represent both buyer and seller in the same transaction." (Link - No. 5. -
http://aaronline.org/canon)
Victoria made the point
on her blog about DGLM that the agent's organizations would do well to get some kind of guidelines in place to cover all of this. I agree. Passive Guy also suggested that any agency considering a publishing venture retain the services of a lawyer that specializes in Agency Law, which would also seem prudent.
As for us writers, I would suggest that we come up with some classification for all this different approaches that agents are talking towards e-publishing and self-publishing, so that we know where we stand.
For me (and you may very well be different), I would use a classification like the one at the top of my post, and this is how I would feel (if I was still querying):
#1 Acceptable.
#2 Acceptable, but with certain caveats.
#3 Unacceptable, strike from query list.
You may feel differently.
I would suggest deciding where you stand on agents assisting in self-publishing ventures and decide where you stand on agents with full-blown publishing ventures, but try not to confuse the two - there are very different issues with each.