Sue Collier, a friend and maven in the indie book world, kindly ran a a short interview with me to help promote my Writers Digest Webinar on agents and self-publishing. The Webinar is over, and I don’t think the On Demand version is available yet (sigh), but for those interested in the topic, here’s a teaser & link to the whole thing. I love talking about this stuff.
Why would a happy self-publisher want an agent? A Q&A with agent Jody Rein
Posted By Sue Collier on June 28, 2011
Sue: Ok, the big elephant in the room…Why would a happy self-publisher want an agent?
Jody: Well, you know that there are hundreds of thousands of self-publishers out there, and each one has a different story. In brief, a literary agent is a good choice for a self-publisher who hopes to publish some or all of his or her books through a traditional house, or who needs help and access to sell subsidiary rights (such as film or foreign) to his or her self-published work, or, possibly for a self-publisher who seeks career management. The services I just listed are all in flux as I type—the whole publishing world is in the midst of a massive identity shift.
I’ve been thinking lately that what we’ll see, at least in the near future, are increasing numbers of people who jump in and out of self and traditional publishing over the course of their careers…READ MORE
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You know, even though I will cry the rallying call of self-publishing, I still want to find a literary agent. Even though the literary world is changing their perspective on self-publishing, other worlds are not… I think a literary agent would help open more doors.
Ray, what’s funny is that I don’t think savvy people in the literary world have changed their perspective; there’s just a bunch more talk about it out there, and fewer openings on traditional lists. I’ve acquired & repped many SP books over the years, and it’s always been the same: traditional publishers always needed some certainty about the market for the book before offering to publish, and sometimes that certainty comes from the proven market of a self-published book. My bosses in the late 80s were thrilled when I found a SP book that had sold terrifically well but not well enough to saturate the market…whoops, I’m off your topic: on agents, yes, they can open doors, but even more than that, if they’re truly expert, will be your expert consultant throughout the process.