Anubis Literary Agency

I've never had a written contract with an agent.

It's been handshake all the way.

What's to argue? If we come to that big a disagreement, I go my way, he goes his. He's still agent of record for anything he sold.

Check out Miss Snark. She usually has the skinny on what's normal and not for agents.

Many agents have no contract, it's not uncommon. Newer ones usually do, but some of the old-schoolers are fine with a "I'll rep you." "OK" type of deal.

The commission numbers also look in line with industry standards.

James D. Macdonald said:

I've never had a written contract with an agent.

It's been handshake all the way.

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Yep, me, too. Since 1982.

Mo

How could a buisness deal like getting an agent work without a written contract? Don't you need a paper trail in case things go south? I mean this board proves that with some agents you really need more than a spoken agreement.

Aubrey said:

How could a buisness deal like getting an agent work without a written contract? Don't you need a paper trail in case things go south? I mean this board proves that with some agents you really need more than a spoken agreement.

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But with others, you don't. I've gone into business on a handshake before, it worked fine. I trusted my partner, he trusted me. Neither one of us broke trust at all.

Besides a paper trail does not require a signed contract, correspondence back and forth is paper trail. A record of payments and receipts is a paper trail. Communications between agent and publishers is a paper trail.

You just have to make sure the basic agreement is mutual, as long as both parties enter into the agreement with disclosure then it's a verbal contract.

A verbal contract is fine as long as it can be established that both parties were cognizant of responsibilities and advantages under the agreement.

If a written contract is drawn up and verbal agreements are moot. Some folks, don't want the document to get in the way of the understanding as they know it.

Regards,
Scott

Imelda said:

Knowing my luck, they'll be the first agent to request the full MS and I'll be left in a quandry.

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Then why submit to them?

All a written contract really does is state the percentages, etc.. everything you already know. And sometimes they have a 'either party can dissolve this agreement with x amount of time' clause. Some don't.

If you know beforehand how the agent does business, ie, sends you an update monthly, weekly or never, lets you know who's looking, who's rejected, if you have to reimburse for fees, etc, then there should be no problem with a verbal agreement. Just make sure you ask all the right questions before agreeing to be represented by them.

You can probably ask them to make an exception for you. I imagine they put that on their website as an enticement. But I'm sure they would give you a simple contract if you wanted one.

Maprilynne

I'm bringing this thread back from the dead to ask if anyone has any experience of dealing with Anubis. I'm probably going to submit to them in the next few weeks so thought it would be worth checking them out here.

Diddo on that last remark - has anyone had any experience with them? I've read up on them, and this is their client list: Lesley Asquith, Christopher Golden, J.F. Gonzalez, Anthea Ingham, Tim Lebbon, Sarah Pinborough, Adam Roberts, Steve Savile, Brett A. Savory. Apparently they're cool with email queries, but I am also not sure on that - only one website that I've found has said anyone positive on that (http://querytracker.net/agent.php?agent=1507)

Patrick Thompson said:

Diddo on that last remark - has anyone had any experience with them? I've read up on them, and this is their client list: Lesley Asquith, Christopher Golden, J.F. Gonzalez, Anthea Ingham, Tim Lebbon, Sarah Pinborough, Adam Roberts, Steve Savile, Brett A. Savory. Apparently they're cool with email queries, but I am also not sure on that - only one website that I've found has said anyone positive on that (http://querytracker.net/agent.php?agent=1507)

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Sorry, where are you seeing that--do you need to be registered with QueryTracker? Because unless something has changed in the month or so since I talked to him last, Christopher Golden doesn't have an agent. (Unless it's a different Chris Golden, but this one is the only one I know of, and he's been handling his own stuff for years. I don't believe he was ever with this agency, in fact; I know who his previous agent was, and it's possible he just didn't mention this one in between that place and repping himself, but I've never heard him talk about this agency.)

Just as an FYI: I know people who enter info on sites like these often make mistakes, so I'm not accusing the agency of padding or anything, just saying that Chris isn't one of their clients AFAIK.

Anubis's Client List

I got that information from this site, the relevant content of which was posted in 2008:
http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/8887-uk-literary-agents-who-specialise-in-science-fiction.html

I'm definitely not trying to pad them or anything - in fact I'll be querying them in the next couple of days. I looked into each of these authors to see if they were actually represented by Anubis, and to my understanding (though I could be horribly wrong) several, if not many, are no longer with Anubis, if ever, as far as I can tell. One of them that seems to still be with Anubis is Adam Roberts - http://www.adamroberts.com/contact/

So if anyone has any information on the recent sales, dealings, etc for this agency let me know.

On the other hand, some publishers and agents use contracts to take advantage of writers. I think many of us know who they are.

Has anyone actually submitted to Anubis? They are pretty high up on my list of agents to try

I submitted to them a couple of years ago with a version of one of my wip, before I discovered I needed to learn a bit more about writing.... it was by snail mail and came back quickly with a no thanks. They have been est. a good while, i think.