David Mamet's disruptive deal with ICM Partners

It's happening.

Large publishers who represent big name talent are starting to allow and even support authors in their ranks to self-publish work. I see this as the next step down the road to authors taking more control of their work and traditional publishers moving toward more supportive service offerings like top notch editing, cover design and distribution.

I just read this illuminating article in the New York Times about author, playright, and screenplay writer David Mamet. Yes, the David Mamet won a Pulitzer for Gelngarry Glen Ross and Speed-the-Plow in the 1980s.

The article focuses on a new deal struck between Mamet and his agency, ICM, which is one of the largest talent agencies in the country. Because they are so big and represent so much top-notch talent, the fact that they are doing this will have a ripple effect across the entertainment world. If it happens in Hollywood, I imagine it will start to look less crazy to the Big Six in New York.

ICM signed a deal with Argo Navis Author Services, part of the Perseus Book Group, to give their clients options outside the Big Six New York publishing houses.

Sloan Harris, co-director of ICM’s literary department, is quoted in the article as saying:

"[Self-publishing] returns a degree of control to authors who have been frustrated about how their ideas for marketing and publicity fare at traditional publishers.”

“Particularly for high-end literary fiction, [marketing] efforts too often have been very low-octane."

Basically, Harris is pointing out that self-publishing gives authors more control and allows them to ramp up marketing efforts that are typically underwhelming through a traditional publisher if the book isn't a big name block buster. An award-winning writer with a large audience choosing to self-publish. That's news-worthy. A big talent agency choosing to facilitate a self-publishing option and talk about it in the news? That's ground-breaking!

Image courtesy of david_shankbone%3