Have contract offer -- get agent?

With an established and reputable ePub that YOU found I would not get an agent. But, that is just me. All of my contracts have been easy to understand and I could and do request changes be made and sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't...so why give someone 10% for nothing?

I agree with Ann. If you can handle and understand the contract on your own, why give away the money you earned?

And congrats!

First of all, congrats to HurtingWriter!

You may not need an agent, if the contracts are simple and you plan to stay in-genre with your work.

In my case, I was happy to commission an agent for my contracts, because she saved me from some potential career-killing issues. I love my publisher. They were not at fault with anything, but it was a very rare situation. Also, since I plan on working in several genres, I wanted someone with experience and a wide range of industry contacts. So I used my first e-pub as almost a loss-leader to get me through a top agent's door. It made financial sense for me, and it's already paying off.

The explosion of the e-pub market has made many more agents willing to work in the field. Virtually any 'name' agent now will have experience in digital work, so I'd say go ahead and contact your favorites to see if they bite.

If they can offer you more value added than you'd lose with the commission, go for it. Otherwise, I'd say Ann and Elindsen have a valid point - why give away money if you don't need to?

FWIW, I believe Elaine English--literary agent and attorney--offers a service where she'll read and help you with a contract for a very reasonable flat fee. Not "reasonable for people with lots of money," but genuinely reasonable; when I last heard it was under $100.

An agent is unlikely to sign you based on an epub contract, but it's not a bad idea to have someone look over the contract. Many are fairly easy to understand, but it's not always easy to know what's standard or desirable and what isn't; things like indemnity clauses, frex, are important, but if you're not aware of them you might not know what to look for.

Just to add one more thing--what's the rush? This isn't your only opportunity to get an agent, and you said that you have other manuscripts that you wrote with a eye to the Big 6, so you might as well wait and continue working with this e-pub, improve your craft, and query those other manuscripts when ready.

I may set my sights on getting an agent one day. Right now, working with my editor was been the best form of writing instruction I have ever received. My craft has improved 1000% over the last few months, and I have been writing for my entire adult life! So I figure that when I'm ready to seek out an agent, my manuscript will be top notch and maybe (fingers crossed) I'll have a nice track record of sales. So there's no need to rush it. Enjoy working with this publisher.

Oh, and congrats on your sale!

Lots of people have given you great advice already, and it's really an individual decision.

In my case, I was in the middle of querying agents and did get several requests for partials and fulls. I decided to also submit to a few traditionally print publishers that accept unagented submissions.

I ended up getting an offer from one of those publishers--but for their ebook imprint (with the possibility of print later).

Since some agents already had the manuscript, I updated them about the offer...and received multiple offers of representation. I decided to go with an agent for multiple reasons:
1) I wanted an agent to represent me for the contract (and she did raise questions and issues I never would have thought of)
2) I wanted an agent for career guidance on many levels, and I think she can help me move from ebook to print over time with her editorial guidance and industry experience
3) I feel the support from her and her agency are worth the commission, and I look forward to working with her for a long, long time.

I'm not suggesting you should query agents. That's entirely up to you...my publisher is primarily known as a traditional publisher so I don't know if a primarily e-publisher would get different responses from agents...but I think it's worth a try if you see yourself wanting to shop those other manuscripts sometime soon.

And in any case, CONGRATS on the book offer and good luck with everything!!

It sounds like what you're really concerned about is signing your first contract. You already found the publisher you want to go with. So I'm going to go off on a slight tangent. If you're concerned about understanding the contract before you sign it, I would find a reputable contract lawyer to look it over with you and discuss it.
I've met authors who signed bad contracts even with an experienced agent. I always remind people who ask me that to get actual legal advice you have to talk to a lawyer. Agents are rarely attorneys themselves.

I married an attorney, so I just get him to look at mine. But there are contract attorneys out there that represent authors. One that springs to mind is David Vandagriff, since he writes The Passive Voice blog. (if you haven't read it you should! It's not legal advice, but it's still very informative.)

To me it only makes sense to get an attorney to look at any contract you're considering; after all, it's an agreement that binds you to the publisher, and usually obligates to you to do certain things. But that's just my two cents.

I suppose I could have gone for the short answer:
No, I don't think you need an agent, but I do think you would benefit from talking to a contract attorney. Most attorneys will do a half hour consultation just to tell you if they think there's a problem or not-- for your peace of mind if nothing else.