Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Pricing Agents

green_knight discusses agent commissions.

I think anything more than 10% is a ripoff, because agents aren't <i>creating</i> anything, just selling it.  And I find the point about writers also not making enough to live on very cogent: if agents want more money, let them negotiate better contracts.  Or get a second job like everyone else is stuck doing.
Tags: economics, networking, writing
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  • 3 comments
eseme

eseme

July 5 2010, 01:52:35 UTC 11 years ago

Apparently the average is %15 these days. And folks have discussed making it higher. Or charging to read manuscripts!

Check out onc informed opinion on one of the SWFA blogs (sadly, it has no formatting to speak of)
http://www.sfwa.org/2010/07/the-case-against-reading-fees/
cissa

cissa

July 8 2010, 21:48:02 UTC 10 years ago

I can see both sides.

Yeah, the agent isn't creating anything directly.

However, they ARE taking on the burden of marketing so that (one would hope) the writer doesn't have to do that- and since most artists are not marketing gurus, this allows both people to do what they do best, and not have to spend lots of time doing something they dislike and/or are not good at.

For example, at this point I'm probably spending more time on marketing crap than I am in the studio, and I neither like it nor am especially good at it; and yet it needs to be done if I am going to make any money at all. If someone could remove that burden from me and hopefully keep me at least as busy making stuff as I am now, I'd be happy to pay them 15%, or possibly even more (which is why most galleries etc. take 40-50% of the selling price).
ysabetwordsmith

Well...

ysabetwordsmith

July 9 2010, 02:48:41 UTC 10 years ago

It is not entirely beyond my imagination that an agent might do enough work and make an author merry bundles of cash, thus actually being worth 15-20%. But most of them aren't. They get the contract and they're done with that manuscript. I don't want to see the expected commission rate keep climbing; it's just inflation. If the agent does super well, nothing says the author can't just tip them an extra several percent.