Such writers will be looking for services that can lighten their load with e-book production, while not limiting them in contractual ways, as their traditional publishers have, and producing more profit per unit. The advantages to mostly-self-publishing (with the aid of a point person who coordinates the technical stuff) include a shorter gap from writing to seeing the work for sale, as well as less time lost to submission and negotiation. (As we all know, it can be months from proposing–or even submitting a finished work–to the contract actually being signed, and longer after that for money to appear, and far longer–typically over a year from a book being turned in–until publication.)

I see little risk to *experienced* writers who choose to let their agent be the point person for this. Yes, it’s a different relationship, and should require a separate contract recognizing that. But if the writer has already decided to present a specific new work first as an e-book, not through his/her regular publisher (which is the only way those who have no out-of-print backlist can get a toe in the independent e-business end), and needs a point person, then the agent is a known quantity.

Yes, the writer could look for someone else to be point person–someone the writer does not yet know or having a working relationship with…at a greater cost of time and effort. Some would argue this is far preferable, but I think it depends on the individual writer.