Had a great discussion at dinner last night about the future of publishing and the role of authors and agents. My believe is that agents have to start providing content capital. The idea behind content capital is pretty much the same as that behind venture capital. Content capital puts up the money, the author creates the work(s) and all proceeds are shared. These would be what the music world has started calling “360 deals,” where many different revenue streams are generated. In publishing, this might well include fees from the author’s speaking engagements. The mechanism for achieving revenue sharing could be as simple as setting up an entity that is owned in part by the author and in part by the content capital provider. The use of proceeds of the content investment includes paying the author a small wage (much like an entrepreneur), but also the marketing of the book through creating a web site, digital and physical distribution, etc. The incentives in this model are much better aligned than in the current model of advances and earn-outs (which are never earned out). The best content capital firms would also come with a strong network of service providers to help build the web site, buy SEM, get speaking engagements, etc. Would love to know if there is anyone out there who is working in that model today. If not, it may be high time for someone to raise a content fund.
