Yes sir, no sir

HB: The Booker Prize winner, Aravind Ardaga, has just sacked his agent, who works for William Morris, which is both a huge film talent agency and also an important literary agency (albeit more in NY than London). The good Mr AA has given no reason for his decision.

Now what is one to make of this? The tone of the commentary so far tends to be that an aggressive author is arrogantly rejecting the agent who brought him success - but my own feeling is rather different. Agents are like plumbers. You pay them to do a job. No one would get upset with an author who changed their plumber, so why should there be a state of shock when an author changes their agent?

It's a question of double standards. We hear all the time from authors who have been dumped by their agents, and more often than not in a bad way: not a swift, businesslike, helpful letter, but rather long silences, emotional outbursts, enormous delays. These partings, crappy and destructive as they are, are never reported on at all. But if an author, from petulance, vanity or any other reason, chooses to move on, then it's all but front page news.

Me, I go on thinking that all agents should address all their clients by 'sir' or 'madam', unless specifically asked not to do so. That's bloody well remind everyone who pays the bills, and that customer service is compulsory, not some optional extra.

Having said all that, of course, my own agent is a star and I wouldn't be without him for the world. But then, he knows all about customer service - even without calling me 'sir'.