There's a huge mess stirring in writer circles right this minute. Writers being who we are, scratch three writers and you'll find ten opinions, here there and everywhere.

Ok, for reference, if you're interested: go to Chuck Palahniuk's article at his blog (he's the writer of Fight Club, among other novels/comics etc) (link here) and you'll get the most immediate description of what happened.

My summary: Chuck's agency (not agent, so far as is known, a bookkeeper working for the agent is the current accused) stole him blind.

The headline number so far is 3.4 million dollars. This is likely spread across a number of different big name writers (Mario Puzo's estate, for example).

Let me get this out of the way up front: I know absolutely squat about the workings of literary agents, other than the "how to submit" articles that are attached to their websites. I've never submitted to one, don't play in that end of the pool, and don't have any plans to do so.

There's a bit of back and forth over this among writers. From many circles in the indie-writer world, I pay most attention to the old pros, the ones who've been in the agent/big publisher end of the pool. Kris Rusch has a couple articles on her view of this at her place (the latest in the series is here).

Jim C. Hines has another view of it, from someone currently involved in the agent/big publisher side of things, at his place (link here).

This is inside pool, but if you're at all interested, especially if you're a writer, I urge you to read all of them.

I don't know that I can say anything useful, really; tarring all agents with this brush is easy, especially for old pros who've seen some version of this over and over again. Whether the population of agents at any given time deserves that brush is for them to look in the mirror and decide for themselves, given that there are a pretty regular stream of these sorts of stories from the agent community, year in and year out. And from an outsider's point of view, precious little visible to objective observers being done to fix it.

Especially given that agents now ask, from what I understand, for a lifetime percentage of a sale that, to a first approximation, they work on once. Real estate agents don't get a lifetime percentage of a house's value when they arrange the sale.

Don't get me wrong. I understand that some agents typically do things well beyond the sale of a given book, booking gigs, handling mail to the writer, and so on. However, I'm not sure in the age of email, websites, and social media that I believe this to be a universal practice across all writer-agent relationships, especially to such an extent that a lifetime cut of an author's earnings is an appropriate ask, especially at the fifteen percent level.

An actor's agent, or a sports agent? Maybe, maybe not, those relationships are opaque but understood (correctly or not) to be a more hands-on arrangement than the writer-agent relationship.

Again, I'm on the outside looking in, and I don't pretend to anything other than a level of "really, this is the way a certain portion of the business operates?" incredulity.

That being said. Audits are a standard business practice, far beyond just the IRS and the tax agencies. If you want someone as a partner, they will almost without fail ask to audit your books before they join up. Your insurance company will want to audit both your books and your physical spaces to make sure you're good with the policy.

Real businesses get audited, in some way shape or form, every. single. year. School boards, property tax boards, insurance companies, big customers with well-written contracts, the list is endless, constant, ongoing.

And not just for-profits. Charities get audited regularly as well. For these reasons and more, because big donors to charities know better than to let the reins run free with checks with lots of commas on them.

If you're a writer who wants an agent, realize that you're hiring someone whose business practices could bankrupt you, today, tomorrow, long after you're dead and your children or heirs or dog or cat or favorite charity are dealing with it.

And act accordingly: if they refuse an audit (after you're signed) or if they refuse to put audit language into their contracts (before you've signed) that you know, understand, and allows you to call an auditor of your choosing in from day 1, then run away and find an agent who respects you as a writer.

Not as a mark.