The Idea Logical Company and Market Partners International recently conducted an anonymous, invitation-only survey of U.S. literary agents on the subject of e-book royalties, and many chose to comment on each question.* 135 agents took the survey. The findings—along with the reactions of seven publishing CEOs, who often questioned the agents’ contentions—will be presented by ILC’s Mike Shatzkin and MPI’s Constance Sayre at a panel at Digital Book World on Wednesday, January 26. Preliminary results show that, of the agents surveyed . . .
- 50% think “the overall impact of e-books and their royalties” are helping their authors’ income on backlist contracts. 25% say e-books are helping earnings on new contracts.
- A third have no preference for the “agency” versus “wholesale” model, while 27% have a preference for agency, and 17% prefer wholesale.
- Two-thirds believe that if e-book rights are not specifically granted in the contract, they are reserved by the author for exploitation, regardless of any non-compete clause.
- A majority believe 50% (or more) is the “fair” e-book royalty, and over 80% believe there will be an increase from the 25% standard over the next three years, with 25% of those believing it will “rise sharply.”
- Over a third say they have negotiated e-book royalties of over 25%, including escalators and bonuses, on new contracts with major publishers.
- Nearly half say a valuable backlist not yet published in e-book format helps make a better deal on new books. A smaller group has negotiated a royalty higher than 25% on new books.
- Half of agents expect major US publishers to move to acquire global e-book rights in the next three years.
- Nearly 90% of responding agents say their authors have expressed interest in the idea of self-publishing e-books as sales grow.
- A third are intrigued by the idea of setting up their own e-book publishing programs, while 25% think “it’s a terrible idea.”
- And happily for all, over 75% of the agents surveyed believe that the best situation is for the print and e-book publisher to be the same publisher—if authors are fairly compensated.
*On average, 22% of those who responded to a question opined about it. A sampling: “A new business model needs to be invented and . . . I think JV’s the way to go” to “Almost everything in a contract is negotiable, including royalty rates,” and finally, on the subject of agents becoming e-book publishers: “25 years from now that’s what a literary agency will be. There will be no ‘publishers’ as we now understand the term.”
