The potential for conflict of interest is titanic. How do you know, when the agent finds you a deal -- either with some other house or with their own imprint -- that the agent is advising you to your benefit, or to the benefit of his/her own house?

It isn't enough to avoid impropriety. You have to avoid the appearance of impropriety.

Much of her advice doesn't make sense for the writer who hasn't published anything yet. e.g., publish your out-of-print backlist as ebooks at the various ebookstores. Likewise, when it comes to using an IP lawyer, as she points out: "If you fail to tell him to check the warranty clause, then he won’t negotiate that horrible write-only-for-this-publisher clause out of your contract." Someone with publishing experience may know to check for these sorts of gotchas. Someone publishing their first novel may be better off finding someone trustworthy who already has that experience.

How many angels can you get to dance for your pin money?

Also, I vaguely recall hearing of one or two publishers who started out as agents, and still acted for a few established clients. But that's not somebody touting for your business.

Me neither, and me too.

There's a lot of generalizing going on. And the e-book enthusiasts ... certainly are enthusiastic.

And now I'm imagining small angels doing DDR on a bank machine keypad.

I definitely need more sleep.

For a consideration of $25,000 not only will we fail to engage a publisher, we will also 'edit' your work by replacing all adjectives with the words 'sparkly' or 'awesome'. We will then query every major publisher with a bulk email (we buy lists cheaply so you don't have to), hinting at future works under your name concerning werewolves. Having utterly poisoned the well, we will -for no further investment- change our telephone numbers, email addresses and, if necessary, names in an unstinting effort to avoid your increasingly homicidal efforts to track us down.

Because you're worth it.

We have the honor to offer you for publicaton this excellent work by "Chaz", one of our well-known stable of authors:

$23.99? While you all engage in a sparkly awesome race to the bottom we will instead provide a sparkly lack of servcice to the client with a more awesome requirement.

For a consideration of $25,000 not only will we fail to engage a publisher, we will also 'edit' your work by replacing all adjectives with the words 'sparkly' or 'awesome'. Then We will query every awesome publisher with a sparkly email (we buy lists cheaply so you don't have to), hinting at awesome works under your name concerning wurwolves. Having utterly poisoned the well, we will for no further investment change our telephone numbers, email addresses and, if necessary, names in an awesome effort to avoid your increasingly sparkly efforts to track us down.

Because you're worth it.

Receipt of this letter indicates your agreement to recognize our agency as the sole legitimate representative for sale of this work, and to funnel through us all revenues earned by this current work and all future works submitted by him to you, specifically noting his upcoming The Fangs of The Commentariat.

Much, perhaps most, of what Rusch says in her weblog pertains to established midlist writers, but she also talks sometimes about beginning writers, e.g. here and here. My summary: publishers are offering more and more unfavorable contract terms, which established writers may have the clout to renegotiate but which beginnging writers must probably take or leave. She suggests that self-publishing may be a better option for some beginning writers than signing a contract from a major publisher with subtly bad reversion clauses or which concede too many rights, and that writers who can do two or more books per year might do well to self-publish one and place the other with a major publisher, keeping more options open.

For some reason I imagine this as being a lost urban fantasy by Raymond Chandler.

"When you Fall, you hit with the kind of a thump that a stockbroker makes when the markets go into a smoking spiral dive. And the only thing you have to know about Falling is that you Fall all the way to the bottom.
I Fell. Sure I did. And since then, I've been hired to dance on all kinds of heads - and none of them were attached to pins. But that's what you have to do once you've Fallen."

As opposed to the unfavorable contracts of the seventies, eighties, and nineties, or the legendarily unfavorable contract terms of the thirties, forties, fifties, sixties?

As to the "take or leave": A book that's publishable by one is publishable by many, and if you aren't willing to leave, you have no business being in the game.

Meet Emily the Agent at BEA!

What do you guys think?

Their website, and the text of the email:

Dear Colleague,

"Poemsand Poets" seeks poems for an anthology celebrating the international poetry year. Of special interest are poems that touch on the human relashionships, love, life, death, family, politics and nature. The editors are especially interested in themes related to humanity and/or environmental, consciousness but are open to diverse subjects.Political poetry and poetry of witness encouraged. No entry fee. Deadlines: July 15.

We hope to receive your contributions and works that deal in some way with these themes: the focus may be on issues of modern life daily experiences in poetry of any genre. What we want are submissions that address the theme(s)
of Human Relationships, War and Peace, Borders, Identity, Love, Life and Death, Inspirational, Politics, Women, etc... in new and exciting ways that allow our readers to see the multiplicity of angles and issues these broad headings generate.
Submissions are open to any creative writers in academic scholarship cycles (students, professors, etc...) and poets from confirmed ones to new young emerging ones. Also,we would be grateful to you if you can transmit and publish this Call for Papers and information among your academic poetry and literary community and websites.

For submission details, see http://www.poemsandpoets.net

Best Regards,
Eva Reynolds
Editorial Staff

I think there's a reason our filters stopped Sarah's post until it could be manually cleared.