So is this below the brief advice?
Someone has a script close to a "deal" and before signing an "option" contract; it is recommended to have contact with appropriate "agency(s)" to handle the deal. Just because of the nature of the situation, an agency is willing to join on the writer's side and get their share from the sale.
Is it?
Here are two questions:
At the phase of optioning, do any share goes to the agent? I heard that option payment may vary from none to 25.000 $ (some higher ones like 50.000 $ maybe).
If there is nothing in producer's mind to pay for optioning, or something not so attractive? Does calling an agent to your side changes this payment amount in behalf of the writer? (By the means of rising the payment). Or does this makes agents cold against any efforts for the writer just from the beginning?
Second matter is that "Does collaborating with an agent saves you from dealing the legal stuff and from reading the agreement's every line under some paranoic stress"?
As to question one -- if you've already agreed to the terms of the option, then there isn't anything left for the agent to do -- because the option is simply, in essence an "option to buy" the script according to the terms of a purchase agreement that you would have to already agree to.
The only circumstance under which this might work would be if someone has made an *offer* which you have not yet accepted, you manage to get an agent (not that easy, even with an offer on the table) and the agent then steps in and negotiates the deal.
Were that to happen, the agent would not only be entitled to ten percent of the option, but would be entitled to ten percent of the purchase price in the event that the producers exercises the option -- that is, they ultimately bought the script.
But despite what you may have heard, this scenario where someone has offered to buy your script and you simply call up an agent and say, "I've got an offer on the table, come in and rep me," and you get an automatic yes, is not anywhere near so easy as people might think."
Who are you? Who is the producer? What is the deal? If it's a low-money option from a no-name producer, you're asking the agent to devote a substantial amount of time to something that is going to net no money or virtually no money up front and may very well net them no money on the back end, because there's very little chance that the script will ever actually be bought.
So unless you've gotten an offer for real money from a real producer with real credits, I wouldn't expect that you'd be able to parlay that into getting an agent. I'm not saying that it's impossible, but it's not very likely.
When you have an agent, or an entertainment attorney, they will negotiate the terms of the sale, including all of the boilerplate stuff, and they will copy you on the contracts as they go back and forth with business affairs -- with the producer's lawyers, so that you will see if there are any significant issues in contention.
Sometimes there have been things that I've asked questions about -- and you shouldn't simply absent yourself from the process, because it's your deal and it's your script and it's your money and you should raise concerns and ask questions if you have them.
So it's definitely a good thing -- and I believe a necessary thing, if you're going to move forward with a deal, to get yourself, if not an agent, then an entertainment attorney, to negotiate the deal or your behalf.
They will have a lawyer working to get the best deal for them. Not a fair deal, the most favorable deal -- for them. You need to have someone representing your interests who knows when you're being screwed and when you're not.
That's not you. You don't know, going in, what's reasonable and what isn't. That means that you might very well make unreasonable demands -- things that they legitimately can't give you, while ignoring things that you should reasonably be able to get (like separation of rights), because you just don't know.
So -- getting an agent -- not so easy. Getting an entertainment attorney -- that's possible. Even if you don't have money (as I've said before) most states have a Volunteer Counsel for the Arts that provides low cost or free legal services to members of the arts community.
NMS
