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Publishers and agents are “more in competition” than ever before, as both parties become more focused on exploiting intellectual property (IP) and developing authors' careers across multiple platforms.
The comments came from two leading industry professionals, speaking after a seminar on “21st Century Publishing: IP centric, multi-platform” on day two of the fair, chaired by lawyer Laurence Kaye, Shoosmith’s publishing and digital media specialist.
Penguin director of new business and IP acquisitions Eric Huang said publishers and agents were engaged in “a land grab”, as both sides tried to capitalise on new opportunities in IP exploitation through deals or partnerships with other media or merchandising companies. He said: “We are in competition with agents in this [IP] space. It is a friendly land grab.”
Fellow speaker Neil Blair [pictured], founding partner of The Blair Partnership, said: “I think it’s a challenge for assisting the author. It is a race for the middle ground, but I think agencies are in a better position to do it.” He argued that agencies were better placed to work with authors on developing multi-platform brands since agents would always focus on individual authors, arguing publishers had too many titles to give each author bespoke treatment.
Blair also said it was now a necessity for authors to create a multi-platform product if they wanted to earn a living. Blair said: “I think most authors, if they want a career, have to be open-minded to lots of different avenues—if they want a career and don’t want to have to be writing on weekends and so on.”