Brave New World of Indie-Publishing: Curtis Brown takes plunge

How interesting is this? Very, I should say! Well known UK authors including Tony Parsons are allowing their literary agent Curtis Brown to ‘self-publish’ on their behalf in the US market. In effect, Curtis Brown is reinventing itself as a publisher – CB Creative Books – for these specific authors to help them break into the US market.

Like thousands of indie-authors, Curtis Brown will be self-publishing through Kindle Direct Publishing and CreateSpace, both operated by Amazon. The authors will probably earn less in royalties than if they had organised this self-publishing project themselves. This may come down to the authors’ loyalty to their literary agency, which is commendable. Or maybe they are not computer-savvy. Or maybe it reflects the small print in their contracts.

But surely the Next Big Step is obvious. I bet my bottom dollar that Curtis Brown (and other leading UK agencies with strong brands) will look at their client authors who are languishing – those for whom CB is struggling to find publishers either in the UK or elsewhere. Why should a good book stay in manuscript form when an agent really believes in it?

See here for CEO Jonny Geller’s comments via The Bookseller: http://bit.ly/YLpan3