Anyone who reads this blog consistently knows of my antipathy for agents. I believe they're little-more than wanna-be authors who agent as a way to try and either get their own stuff published, or to live out their fantasies through the publishing of their "clients." Many have MFAs, which is great if you want to write, but if you want to represent people in contract negotiations, you probably need a background in either intellectual property law or business.
I say this as I found yet another recently. An agent I found represents a fair number of successful authors, such as Tad Williams, but he also has written several books himself. Now this may sound like great stuff to some, but to me it demonstrates that his full attention is not on his clients, and were I one of his clients, I'd be wondering whether or not his side hobby/true field of desire is costing me money since he so obviously wants to do something besides be a bulldog for his clients.
This person isn't the only "agent" to be a wanna-be writer. It makes me wonder why they went into agenting in the first place. Was it just to establish ties to the traditional industry in hopes of seeing their own stuff eventually published? How do they represent themselves to their clients?
Again, I have little use for agents myself, and it's stuff like this that affirms such a stance. Don't get me wrong - knowing how to turn a phrase is wonderful in spotting talent, but shouldn't the guy or gal trying to get you paid know more about legal phrasing and squeezing out the right amount of money from a publisher than he does about plot design or the iambic pentameter?
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