Digital First Agents

Of course you should post things here, Ginger. It's good when people ask questions.

I asked about this subject over on Uncle Jim's thread. This is what he had to say.

I'm now inclined to pass on the opportunity to submit my full. I don't want to restrict my options.

I'll quote the post that Hathor linked to:

James D. Macdonald said:

My thought is, why are the agents limiting themselves to one format? Suppose there's a non-digital-first publisher that would be a better fit for the book? That's like going with an agent who says they'll only submit to paperback-original houses. Why?

Those guys are advertising, "Our business model is to leave money on the table!"

I doubt you'll find many (if any) top-tier agents in their ranks.

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That's pretty much what others have said in this thread, I think.

I just told the agent thanks, but no thanks. That's the first time I've rejected an agent, rather than the reverse. It felt strange.

I'm trying to cope with my immediate regrets. Another (but standard) request today would definitely help with that.

Hathor,

I went through the same thing of rejecting an agent (in my case, I hadn't properly researched her beforehand) without having any other offers on the table.

Eventually, luckily, a few months later I found an agent who I had researched and am really, really happy with.

I guess what I'm saying is this: I feel for you; good luck with the rest of your search; and, as many people on these boards have said, it's better to have no agent than a bad one (bad, in this case, meaning Not the best fit for you).

Yeah, the information was right there on her website description, but I missed it. I've decided to blame the contractors banging around my house.

I suppose I shouldn't have tried querying with all the uproar around me. I just saw a #MSWL description and it sounded so like my book...

At least she expressed interest, which is something.

I'm glad you ultimately found the right agent for you. It gives me a ray of hope.

Speaking from experience, it's a lot of work to prepare manuscripts and submissions to ebook publishers. They all want something different, and no two contracts are alike. If the book is really successful, I suppose the work is worth it, and we've had some very successful ebooks published. But if we were to be paid by the hour, instead of on commission, we'd be way behind on work vs. rewards. I just don't see digital only being a sound business practice. Just sayin....

Just saw this tweet from Lori Perkins, intro'ing a new agent as the one who "discovered" Fifty Shades.

The agent, Tish Beaty, is listed as an ePub agent.

Clovia said:

Just saw this tweet from Lori Perkins, intro'ing a new agent as the one who "discovered" Fifty Shades.

The agent, Tish Beaty, is listed as an ePub agent.

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She must have been an acquiring editor at The Writer's Coffee Shop.

Note that Lori Perkins is a literary agent who set up her own digital publishing house, Ravenous Romance, which is a direct conflict of interests; the Lori Perkins agency has employed digital-only agents in the past; and (if I've got this right) The Writers' Coffee Shop press specialised in publishing fan fiction, which seems to me to be a direct copyright infringement.

The Lori Perkins agency, its digital imprint Ravenous Romance, and The Writers' Coffee Shop press each have their own threads in BR&BC if you'd like to continue any specific discussions there or look up any background to this aspect of the conversation. (I'd provide links, but I'm having a few connection problems at the moment.)

That the Perkins agency has employed another digital-only agent shows that having one on the books is working for them; but it is such a restrictive way to work that I doubt very much that this is the best option for the writers who those agents represent.

Thanks, Old Hack.

I'd noticed this thread and read through, and when I saw that tweet, thought this would be a good place to put it. I probably should have thought of something more substantive to go with the discussion here, but I was mostly chuckling over the "discovered" thing. Like she was hunting through the wilds of fandom, Indiana Jones style, for treasures unknown to the outside world. Or saw FSoG pulling sodas at the Fandom Pharmacy in a tight sweater, and like its look.

I do wonder if having her on the books, and billing her that way, is something of an encouragement for more fic writers to approach the agency with their work.

A bit of history about TWCS: it came out of fan fictions that were removed by Fanfiction.net for TOS violations for both ratings (M and MA fics aren't permitted there) and content matter (abuse, human trafficking, rape as erotic content).

So it's less about "discovery" and more about "there is this hugely popular fan fiction that no longer has a home where it was, so let's get those pageviews." MOTU, as it was known back then, had tens of thousands of reviews; it wasn't languishing undiscovered.

As for any agent; I'd honestly be concerned about experience in publishing (beyond a fan fiction file 'n pub), as well as the digital-only angle, which, as we've already noted, doesn't really seem necessary when these publishers accept unagented submissions.

Then you get into the ethical questions about this agency (OH, those are in violation of AAR, right?) and I see red flags everywhere.

Old Hack said:

Note that Lori Perkins is a literary agent who set up her own digital publishing house, Ravenous Romance, which is a direct conflict of interests; the Lori Perkins agency has employed digital-only agents in the past; and (if I've got this right) The Writers' Coffee Shop press specialised in publishing fan fiction, which seems to me to be a direct copyright infringement.

.

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I'm not sure about that. What happened with TWCS was that they had a fan fiction community posting fan fiction on their site which yes...is copyright infringement although these free fan fic sites seem to be largely ignored by the enormously popular authors that seem to inspire fan fic communities, and treated as free publicity. But what TWCS published for money were and are I think only books that had at least been transformed from fan fiction into original fiction such as Fifty Shades of Grey. I mean Fifty Shades of Grey is not about vampires, it is not set in a High School I don't think it lifts any passages from Twilight? It was inspired by Twilight.
I don't write fan fic and it's not really part of my world, but from what I've read I don't really think TWCS is as terrible as is being made out in this thread?

gingerwoman said:

But what TWCS published for money were and are I think only books that had at least been transformed from fan fiction into original fiction such as Fifty Shades of Grey. I mean Fifty Shades of Grey is not about vampires, it is not set in a High School I don't think it lifts any passages from Twilight? It was inspired by Twilight.

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This is where everything gets murky. FSoG wasn't "transformed" from anything. It's nearly identical to the original fan fiction as it was first posted on Fanfiction.net. Those who've run it through plagiarism software show that the published text is 88% similar to the original: about what you'd expect when you see names and descriptions changed.

Fanfiction isn't always set in the world of the canon material. Much of it is called "AU" or "alternate universe" which is how Edward can be written as a human billionaire CEO or a human barista or any number of things.

As to whether fanfic as a whole can be considered "copyright infringement" that would have to be decided by a court. As none of the property owners took FSoG to court, that issue was never decided, and the resulting glut of former fanfic that's been published seems to have established a precedent.

And there's been fanfic published with vampires, too.

For more info about how all this goes down (and about fanfic in general), there's a great book coming out in December that talks about fic, the legalities as they're understood, and what all went on with this trend. [Disclosure: I have an essay in it].

TWCS was created by the Twilight fandom, same with the Publisher Omnific, the majority of their books published are originally Twilight fanfiction stories.

Secondly you don't want to publish with TWCS because they make the authors sign a NDA, if publishers have you sign a NDA RUN THE OTHER WAY. The only thing you get from TWCS is poorly edited books.

Also Tish was an editor for TWCS, she so called "edited" FSOG, if you could call it editing. What fish brained editor can't tell the difference in British Diction and the American language.

lol FSOG is so completely British, pretending it is set in the USA does not work.