Agency Agreement, is this one standard?

[debbie131313]

I am new to this space and I am writing my first book so I would love *ANY* advice I can get about the process of working with an agent.

In particular, I want to know if the following percentages are standard:

a) 15% of such gross proceeds and other considerations from the exploitation of English language publication rights in the United States and Canada and from the exercise of print (and related) subsidiary rights in such territories.

b) 20% of such gross proceeds from the exploitation of British and so-called "foreign" publication rights and from the exercise of any and all print (and related) subsidiary rights in any territory outside of the United States and Canada. If British market and/or "foreign" publication rights are controlled and sold by the American publisher, our commissions with respect to such proceeds shall be 15%.

c) 15% of such gross proceeds from the exploitation of motion picture, television, radio, dramatic, audio, electronic, and all other non-print subsidiary rights in the World.

The Agency is NY based and its clients include: Dr. Jan Garavaglia, Rohit Bhargava, Matthew Birkbeck, Timothy Ferriss, Michael E. Gerber, David Gibson, Andrew Keen, Charles Kimball, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Jonathan Segura.

Thank you so much for all your help!

[Kasey Mackenzie]

I recently signed with an agent who's with one of the big NY agencies and the agreement states that they will receive 15% on domestic sales and 20% on foreign. As far as I know, that's pretty standard.

[Stacia Kane]

*nods* Me too. Looks standard to me.

[debbie131313]

Thank you so much guys, you are great!

[victoriastrauss]

If British market and/or "foreign" publication rights are controlled and sold by the American publisher, our commissions with respect to such proceeds shall be 15%.

If your publisher retains rights and sells them, the agent shouldn't be entitled to a commission. An agent should earn a commission only on rights s/he is directly responsible for selling. I'd attempt to strike this sentence.

If you can't negotiate to strike it, you might consider replacing "such proceeds" with "the author's share of such proceeds." Probably a quibble, but you'll be splitting any such income with the publisher, and you only want to pay the agent on your share, not on the total.

c) 15% of such gross proceeds from the exploitation of motion picture, television, radio, dramatic, audio, electronic, and all other non-print subsidiary rights in the World.
10% is the standard commission for WGA agents who sell motion picture, TV, and dramatic rights.

I also find it odd that electronic rights would be lumped in here; commercial publishers tend to buy them along with print rights, so properly they should appear in (a), not (c).

Is there any mention of co-agents and split commissions?

- Victoria

[Stacia Kane]

Darn. I knew I should have checked my own agency contract before I said something. Sorry.

[Kasey Mackenzie]

Hopefully I made it clear that I was just specifically commenting on the domestic versus foreign sales percentages being standard. I don't know enough to offer an opinion on the other questions and would definitely trust Victoria's advice. She's got more experience on this than me! =)

I recently signed with an agent who's with one of the big NY agencies and the agreement states that they will receive 15% on domestic sales and 20% on foreign. As far as I know, that's pretty standard.