BookBrunch - Authors, agents and self-publishing

Literary agents have to be prepared to take all routes to market, Sam Edenborough writes.

A literary agency has a duty to its clients to make them money by finding their audiences. These days this imperative requires some innovation among the Association of Authors' AgentsThe association of UK agents. Their website (http://www.agentsassoc.co.uk/index.html) gives a Directory of Members and a code of practice, but no information about the agencies other than their names. The association refers visitors to the UK agent listings from The Writers' & Artists' Yearbook on the WritersServices site.' (AAA) members as we help our clients on their journey to publication and beyond. The agent's role has developed in the last few years; we are no longer gatekeepers, but enablers. Agencies are reconfiguring in order to take advantage of - and to develop - new routes to market.