If the agent gets an offer from a publisher you aren't interested in do you as a writer get to refuse? I'm sorry I am unclear, I'm not experienced with this or the jargon.
Yes, of course. The agent works for you, not the other way around. Most writers find agents a bit intimidating, because they are the gatekeepers between us and the editors who will actually buy our books, but they are there to serve you and do all the boring legwork of submitting your manuscript, vetting publishers' contracts, chasing royalties, and so on. If you're not sure about this stuff, do read as many of the threads on Ask the Agent and Ask the Editor as you can, to get a feel for the business side of writing.
Bottom line: you don't have to agree to
anything in a contract if you don't want to, though the publisher may walk away if they won't negotiate. As newbies we don't really have much say in the terms, though your agent should be able to get any really egregious ones changed or removed if the publisher tries it on.
A lot depends on how influential your agent is, how keen the publisher is to sign you, and how much experience they have of working together. My agent reps several authors who have signed with my publisher Angry Robot, so he was able to bump up my contract from two books to three, as well as negotiating more reasonable deadlines for the two sequels.
