Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Agents

This is topic Agents in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Kolona (Member # 1438) on :

This might be a question for Kathleen.

Doing my homework on agents and was checking out the books one agency is representing. The agency lists the status of the rights involved on the books. I got about halfway down the list and only one book had the author's name listed after the rights. A number of books had publishers listed, but the greater majority of books had the agency listed. Do agencies buy/hold rights from the author, or am I reading this wrong? Is this something to watch for in contracts?

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

First of all, if you want to know what to watch for in contracts, you should go to the website of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

http://www.sfwa.org

and see what they have on contracts. They provide "model" contracts that every writer should print out to compare to the contracts they may receive from potential publishers or agents.

Second, unless you specifically sell a right (in a contract--so yes, you should pay attention to how the contract is worded), all you are doing is licensing the right.

If you don't want to SELL your rights, you ought to make sure that every contract you sign has a reversion clause (which states that all rights revert to the author at some specific point in time).

Third, I'm not sure why the agent would be listing the rights as if the agent owns them. So far as I know, agents don't hold any rights to an author's work, ever. A publisher may hold the rights they are licensing from the author, but I don't know why an agent would need to hold any rights.

I'd be sure to ask lots of questions before agreeing to go with such an agent.

I hope this helps.

Posted by Chronicles_of_Empire (Member # 1431) on :

I think in this instance perhaps there's a distinction involved between the concepts of

1 - copyright
2 - publishing (distribution) rights

Obviously, any decent agent will not dare threaten the author's copyright and right to be identified as the author of the work.

However, distributions rights is exactly that, and that is precisely what authors are offering for sale to agents. You never sell a manuscript - you sell the rights to distributing the manuscript, which the agents get paid for by selling those publishing rights to a publishing company.

Agents will generally look to purchase domestic publishing rights - and possibly either targetted foreign markets or else worldwide rights in general. Depends on the work, the market, and the publishing company.

Posted by srhowen (Member # 462) on :

I think what you might be seeing is the rights being offered. If rights are already sold to a publisher then the publisher would be listed as already owning those rights. If the rights are still available then the agency would be listed, not because they own them, but because they are the rights still free.

I don't think you are going to find a publisher and still retain all your rights to the book.

Shawn

[This message has been edited by srhowen (edited June 17, 2003).]

Posted by srhowen (Member # 462) on :

Just another note---agents don't purchase rights publishers do. The contract may state that they have the right to sell those rights but they do not own them.

If you look at my page at The Zack Company you will see the rights listed under my novel synop since Zack is handling those rights he is listed after them. Again he doesn't own those rights he is just my agent now taking on the duty of selling those rights.

http://www.zackcompany.com/titles/medicineman.htm

Shawn

Posted by Kolona (Member # 1438) on :

I would have thought that, but what is the difference with the book that had the author's name listed? As I said, "only one book had the author's name listed after the rights. A number of books had publishers listed, but the greater majority of books had the agency listed."

[This message has been edited by Kolona (edited June 18, 2003).]

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Maybe it meant that the author had no agent.

If the listing is of whom to contact if you are interested in a particular right, then that would make sense because publishers may act as agents for an author with regard to such things as foreign rights or movie rights.

Posted by srhowen (Member # 462) on :

hmm---I thought about that. Maybe the book was self published before the agent? Or maybe the agent reps the author for some works but not others. No idea on that one.

Shawn