Weighing the Value of the Literary Agent in the Digital Age

The great digital transformation has forced publishers to reinvent their business models, go direct to consumers, and reevaluate their value to authors when self-publishing provides a lower barrier to entry and sometimes greater profits. But publishers aren't the only book professionals upended by these changes. Literary agents are struggling to prove their worth to authors that prefer to forgo management fees and publish and market their works independently.

The changes brought about by self-publishing and the new role agents must play as a result were the topics of discussion during a panel at this year's BookExpo America titled "Beyond Authors: Self-Publishing and the 'New' Agents." Christopher Kenneally of the Copyright Clearance Center moderated the session which featured literary agents Robert Gottlieb of Trident Media Group, Rachelle Gardner of Books & Such, Steven Axelrod of the Axelrod Literary Agency, and agent-turned-content-strategist Jason Allen Ashlock of The Frontier Project.

Axelrod encapsulated the precarious situation in which agents find themselves, contending that where once authors went to an agent first in hopes of becoming published, they now self-publish until they ascertain a clear benefit from working with an agent. The problem, continued Axelrod, is there isn't always one. "I have a romance writer who has done the math, knowing that if she took her books to Kindle she would make much more money. It's hard for me to tell her not to because it is a better deal. The math is the math."

Other panelists emphasized that an agent's relationship with his author entails so much more than obtaining a book contract. "To define agents as transactional in today's environment is naïve," said Gottlieb, "We do marketing, design, and we form unique relationships with e-retailers so that authors can do what they want in those spaces." Above all, said Gottlieb, an agent's role is to get his author in as many channels of distribution as possible, including ebooks, audiobooks, and foreign markets. "If you are published in a variety of tributaries, you are in a much stronger position to dictate where you are in the future."