Conflict? Ebooks sales by lit agencies or trade houses.

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Commonsensical Maverick
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With what's going on today it seems that some literary agencies will pay (outlay) for all the work required, and pay (outlay) all the money required to prepare a new manuscript or an out of print book for ebook publication and subsequently publish and go on to sell these works in ebook form themselves, cutting out trade houses. Do I have this right?

If this is true, regardless of what percentsge of agenicies are doing this, two questons:
1. who is taking care of the paper book rights to these books?
2. overall, won't this tactic piss off trade houses? Aren't agencies cutting off the hands that feeds them?
 
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With what's going on today it seems that some literary agencies will or may do all the work required and pay (outlay) all the money required to prepare a new manuscript or an out of print book forebook publication and actually publish these works in ebook form. Thereater, as far as I can tell, some of these agencies will also sell the ebook on their own, rather than work with a trade house.

Every time I hear about agents operating as publishers, I feel sick. To me it is a conflict of interest. There are more posts on it by a former lawyer, Passive Guy. I learned about this blog from Dean Wesley Smith and KKR's blogs, but this guy is now on my own blog roll list.

http://www.thepassivevoice.com/05/2011/agents-in-conflict/
http://www.thepassivevoice.com/05/2011/how-agents-can-avoid-conflicts-of-interest/
http://www.thepassivevoice.com/06/2...-a-conflict-of-interest-for-agents-after-all/

But I also see this tactic as upsetting commercial publishers. But you raised a good point about print versions. I wonder if these people (agents as publishers) thought that far ahead.

Jodi
 
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