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fix this, you cannot get
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reparations for it. Legally the publisher can buy copyright, and legally you
can sell it, but you'd be insane to do so.
You may at times write books for which you do not own the copyright for
these
(movie novelizations, media tie-ins, series books packaged by a packager,
etc.) make sure that your agent sees that you are well-compensated up-front,
and that you are going to get lots of royalties, because you will never see a
dime in subrights sales, and for a writer, that is a Bad Thing.
How do I sell to foreign countries?
I don't know. That's one of the many reasons I have an agent. He does know.
At the point where this becomes an issue for you, get an agent and get a
good one.
"
Questions About Agents
When do I need an agent?
When you have at least one novel manuscript or screenplay completed and an
idea of what your next couple of books (or screenplays) will be. You don't
need an agent to represent you on short stories or poetry. If you only want to
sell the one book that you've completed and you never want to write another,
you might need an agent to get the best terms for the book you've done, but
you probably won't be able to get one. Agents want clients who work in
profitable fields (novels, screenplays) and who will produce salable work on a
regular basis.
How much should I pay an agent to read my book?
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The instant an agent tells you that he charges a fee to evaluate your
manuscript, RUN
do not walk in the opposite direction. NO REPUTABLE AGENT charges a
reading or evaluation fee. The AAR (Association of Author Representatives)
forbids its signatories from doing so, just as it works in other ways to
uphold the ethics of the field. Good agents are signatories of the AAR. Real
agents make their money by taking a commission when they sell your books.
They, like real publishers, take you on because they believe in you and in
your work. They read your material, they say to themselves, I can sell this
writer's work and make enough money from my fifteen percent to make it worth
my while. I can see this writer becoming something special in the field, and I
can help him get there.
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Ripoff agents feed you the following lines I charge a $50 processing fee.
If the manuscript is sold, the fee is refunded. If the manuscript is not ready
to be submitted, the writer gets a professional critique as to what must be
done to the manuscript. Oh lucky you. Or, $60 reading fee for first three
chapters and outline or synopsis but only when I request this material once
I've read the query letter. Fees for reading complete manuscript are on a
sliding scale. Gee. How generous. (These come from actual agent entries in a
popular writers' guide to agents, publishers, etc..)
Here is the unspoken translation to the agent's reason for requiring a reading
fee. I
absolutely suck as an agent. I cannot make as much money off of my sales of
books for my clients as I can by ripping off naive writers who don't know that
my job as an agent should be to sell books and make money for my clients, and
that my search for new clients should be part of my cost for doing business,
just as the writer's investment of time, talent, office supplies and postage
is part of his. Furthermore, I
have the ethics of the scum you scrape off the underside of a dead tree, and
I've found that P.T. Barnum was right: There is a sucker born every minute.
I'm out to milk my share of them.
Never pay an agent a reading fee. Never work with an agent who charges reading
fees. There are no exceptions to this rule.
How do I find an agent?
The best way to find an agent is through the recommendation of a happy client.
Your time will be well spent if you meet writers whose books you read at
conferences or conventions or online and ask them who their agents are, what
their agents have done for them, and whether they would recommend their agent
to anyone else.
Don't ask if they'll recommend you to their agent (unless the two of you are
friends and the writer is familiar with and likes your work). That is an
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imposition. But just asking about their agents is not an imposition. It ain't
top-secret information. And most writers are more than willing to brag or
bitch about the person representing them.You can learn a lot from these
conversations.
There are two reasons why you only ask writers you've heard of these
questions. The first is because you have heard of them, so you know their
agent must be doing something right. The second is that most writers write the
sort of stuff they read so if you read SF and want to write SF, you'll be
eliminating a lot of agents who loathe
SF from your query list if you get the names of agents who already represent
SF
writers.
The next best way is to go through the most current edition
Insiders Guide to Book
Editors, Publishers, and Literary Agents or a similar guide and look for
agents who express an interest in the kind of work you do.
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When you've found an agent that interests you, query. Don't send the completed
manuscript without his having requested it first.
Do I have to have an agent to be a writer?
No. Of course not. You don't even have to have an agent to be a professional
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