I thought I would start a discussion on a topic that came up in another thread. And I would love to hear from those with agents what your agent really does for you. Is it worth the cut they take? I imagine there are some ways around needing an agent and other times you're really glad they are there. My thoughts on agents are that they get your book ready to sell and than reach out to their contacts. It's because of their contacts that you want an agent, right? I don't want someone to manage my whole writing career and take a cut of everything I write and sell outside the book. Like if I sell a short story to a magazine for $1k, why should they get any of it? And if they sell my book for $1k, I think I will be looking for a new agent since that seems like a deal I could likely land without an agent. This complicates things for me a little, and I'm not exactly sure what to think. I'm probably just confused or missing something since just about every author has an agent. Right?
I don't know that every author has an agent, but the vast majority of those selling to major publishers certainly do. I think mine is definitely an asset. As I said in the other thread, she doesn't represent any work I don't want her to represent, so if I decide there's something I want to sell on my own or self-publish, I go ahead and do it. Other than that, yes, she shops my work around to various publishing contacts, and she also negotiates the contracts for me. She also brings offers the other direction, from her contacts to me. I got a chance to write a proposal for a film company that was going into publishing because they approached her looking for an author, and I've also done some writing for a weird text-based-story-telling (like, text messages on a phone) app that pays surprisingly well for the number of words, based on them approaching her and her connecting them with me. And she gives me feedback on ideas I have prior to me writing them. Like, a few weeks ago I had ideas for three separate stories, so I contacted her and she said she thought the market was definitely good for one of them, so that's the one I'm going to write. Not a guarantee, but good inside information.
@BayView or anyone with an agent -- Does your contract say anything about first refusal for future works? Is that common? It seems like maybe it's a bit of an unsaid practice at least, no?
There's an assumption that I'll send future work her way, but there's no contractual obligation. I'd see it as a red flag, I think, if an agent tried to put that in. The big area of "commitment" is on any book the agent actually spends time on. If she negotiates a contract for me and then I fire her, she still gets her 15% for the rest of the contract. And there's a 60-day period after I fired her where she'd still get her 15% if I sold the book to someone she'd been shopping it to before I fired her. That's it.
Thanks for sharing your insight. I'm just wondering why it would be a red flag if you saw that in a contract. I mean if it's the way it works anyway, is it really a problem? And if it is really a problem, what would it say about the agent? Thanks again.
Well, it'd be tying you to an agent you might not want to continue working with. If you DO want to continue working with that agent, there's no need for the clause, and if you don't want to continue, the clause would hurt you.
Did you have a lot of questions or any for your agent regarding the contract? Were thing negotiable? I feel like I need an agent to help me work out a deal with an agent. Sorry if I'm asking too many questions or seem stupid. I worked with an agent before, but that was sort of a handshake agreement and didn't work out. I mean the truth is that I feel like I would sign just about anything, and I have a feeling that's not necessarily the best way to go about things.
Definitely not the best way to go about things. I have a law degree, so I'm reasonably comfortable with contract language, but I also did a fair bit of research, and then I ran a couple lines I wasn't sure about by Victoria Strauss over at Writer Beware. Actually, I think she reviewed the whole contract for me (it was only a page long). I'm not sure if she still does that for people, but if she does, she'd definitely be worth getting in touch with. Obviously if you're working with an established, reputable agency you have less to worry about, but you still want to be damn sure you understand all the terms.
