BY MULUGETA GUDETA
Since book publishing and distribution became a lucrative business back in the 19th century, many publishers that controlled, manipulated and sometimes abused the industry appeared on the literary marketplace with an unprecedented drive for making profits at the cost of the writers whose works were consumed by readers with equal appetite. As the division of labor in the publishing industry gained momentum, writers proved unable to defend their interests in the marketplace in the face of voracious publishers whose main objective was to maximize their profits and turn themselves into mega publishers with tentacles extend to all five continent of the world.
The earlier publishers showed no mercy in exploiting famous as well as less known writers whose interests is mainly for their work to appear in print, and if they are lucky, to achieve fame and admiration from their readers. This is part and parcel of a process also known as “primitive accumulation of capital” that exploited workers (writers are also mental workers) in order to maximize their profits and satiate their greedy instincts.
Book publishing as an economic activity, expanded with the growth of capitalist division of labor according to which each actor in the industry is given a role to play and interests to protect in proportion to their importance in feeding the profit making machinery. Laws and regulations were enacted favoring publishers but not the main actors of the industry, namely writers most of whom lived in deplorable conditions. It was only late 20th century and early 21st century that produced elite writers earning six or seven-digit royalties like horror writer Steven King or British children’s fantasy book writer ——— whose sales figures made her the first billionaire author in the history of publishing.
The development of publishing led to the emergence of literary agents acting as mediators between authors and publishers whose job is to persuade publisher to consider works for publication and earn 10% or more from the writers’ incomes as it is the ongoing practice in Western societies. The amount of fees book agents earn may also depend on the special agreements between authors and agents or a three-way relationship between authors, agents and publishers. This has became a well-entrenched rule of the game in countries where book publishing and distribution has grown into serious businesses with billions of dollars in annual turnovers.
In less developed and poor countries where capitalism has not yet developed and the book publishing industry is still in its infancy, there are no agents and where there are fewer of them, their roles are not as important as those in advanced capitalist countries. Generally speaking, literary agents play marginal roles in publishing industries of those countries where the major deals are done between authors and publishers without any intermediary.
This is so because the earnings from published books are meager and authors cannot afford to pay a third party whose role is to find publishers for aspiring writers.
Modern book publishing is a recent phenomenon in Ethiopia although the country boasts of thousands years old tradition of book printing and distribution. The modern printing press came to Ethiopia in the 19th century mainly during the reign of Emperor Menelik II whose modernizing fervor is a well-documented fact. The first Ethiopian novel to be published dates to the same period and the first modern fiction writers appeared around the same time.
Capitalist economic development in Ethiopia is a very superficial and scattered phenomenon that has not led to the emergence of a publishing industry as an independent and profitable activity. The situation has not yet changed even now that the 21st century has led to growing demands for books and learning. For most of the 20th century, book publishing and distribution remained activities undertaken by government-owned institutions like the Berhanena Selam (Light and Peace) printing press that was established by the same innovative emperor.
Private printing presses and publishers appeared around the mid 20th century when a few visionary entrepreneurs decided to set up office for the business of receiving manuscripts from authors and read, edit and publish them if they find them worthy of printing or profitable. The costs of publishing are covered by the publishers while the authors receive a small royalties (sometimes ranging between 5% and 6% in more generous cases) while the publishers took the lion’s share of the profits.
Book writing and publishing witnessed a real period of boom during and after the Ethiopian revolution of 1974 when the public requested new literature to read in the context of the opportunities for knowledge and learning created by the revolutionary events. New authors and independent publishers appeared during that period. Many new books, both ideological and fictional, were published at that time. As publishing books became an income generating activity, many new writers were motivated to publish their works even though the royalties were very low or could not turn them into professional writers.
The Ethiopian Book Centre, Mega Publishing House and other non-governmental publishing enterprises led the way. There were also individual entrepreneurs with enough money to invest in the then lucrative book publishing business and helped young and aspiring writers and translators join the industry in droves.
The book publishing industry had powerful competitors during the 1980s and 1990s as dozens of new magazines and newspapers started to be printed and distributed thereby taking a big chunk of potential profits from the book business that was weakened by unfavorable political developments.
As the public was hungry with instant news and political magazines that were inspired by momentary political events, there was less demand for new books and more demands for magazines and newspapers. This trend was only cut short after the events of post-Election 2005 that led to the closing of many publications that were critical of the then ruling party and the government. Unfortunately however, there was no going back to the heydays of book publishing that was undermined by strict censorship and escalating cost of printing in the post-2005 period.
While all these developments were interesting in themselves, one major weakness of the book publishing industry was the absence of literary agents who could have closed the gap between writers and publishers whose interests were so divergent and their incomes unbalanced to such an extent that writers labor for little income from while publishers earned most, if not all the profits the industry generated.
The absence of literary agents in turn led to the emergence of the phenomenon of self-published writers. On the other hand, a few booksellers who had enough capital to open shop in the city centre turned themselves into informal publishers who took manuscripts from authors and published them in order to divide the proceeds between them or receive published books from self-published authors and sell them on their behalf in order to collect a 35% or more from the profits from their operations without investing a penny for the production of the books. Selling books on consignment thus became the most preferred activity of a few book sellers who continued to thrive at the cost of the writers who receive only the rest of the profit after investing their money and covering the transportation and other costs.
The absence of literary agents who could play the role of mediators between authors and publishers and by doing so could better defend the rights and interests of the writers, has allowed many book sellers to turn the situation in their favor while undermining authors’ interests. The 10% fee paid for agents by writers in many countries is fair by any comparison.
Literary agents also alleviate writers of the burden of finding publishers for their works because agents not only search for potential publishers but also negotiate the terms of publishing that are often favorable to authors. Agents also play the role of catalysts in the publishing industry by bringing new authors and their works to the attention of the reading public. Novice writers often face the serious challenge of not getting attention by established publishers that are after profits and not after new talents not yet tested by the market.
According to the experiences of other countries where the publishing industry is a lucrative one, authors are served rather well by agents who negotiate for the publication and distribution of their works. According to a recent article in the Guardian newspaper by Chris Paling, “Writers need agents more than agents need writers. They have needed them since the late 19th century when an increasingly literate public fed by the magazines and single volume prints made possible by the invention of Linotype printing created a lucrative industry. Until then, authors operated on a “half profits” system with publishers, in which they shared earnings 50/50 once the publishers had deducted their expenses (and when they got round to sending the cheque). The new breed of agents empowered authors by leasing their copyrights to publishers in return for royalties and an advance on these royalties.”
In the Ethiopian context, literary agents could well alleviate the frustrations and economic burdens of self-published writers in particular who, in addition to the energy they expend on writing their books, also spend their meager financial resources on publishing them. Most often than not, these self-published authors do not achieve financial success because the distribution of their works are dependent on their relationships with the book sellers who are guided by non-literary criteria such as friendship, personal attitudes, connections and the likes to accept the books on consignment.
The presence of literary agents could also facilitate the publishing of quality literature and the emergence of good writers whose acceptance letters from publishers could boost their morale and inspire them for more and better works. As things stand now, relatively mediocre books can enjoy good sales simply because the book sellers favors them or displays their works for sale while hiding others because they may not favor the authors or think they are not profitable. There is no professionalism in the current book publishing and distribution industry in Ethiopia. This kind of unfair treatment by booksellers towards writers has led many of them to frustration and to their withdrawal not only from the market but also from the business of writing.
What Ethiopian writers need at this point are literary agents with knowledge of their trade and willing to be governed by the rules and laws of the industry, that are yet to be written, and earn their livings while helping authors emerge from the darkness of anonymity to fame, and if possible, to fortune. More importantly, by protecting the rights of authors and by empowering them, they could contribute to making writing and writers respected members of society and not marginalized and frustrated, misunderstood and abused creatures suffering from anxieties of all kind as they are caught between the urge to be published and achieve fame and fortune and the cynicism and greed of booksellers and printers.
The Ethiopian Herald July 3/2021
