I Realize I've Been MIA from AW, But I Have (Possible) Good News And Need Some Help.

David McAfee

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I received and offer of representation today. The agent is a legitimate NYC agent with a $ at P&E. At this time, I'd rather not name the agency, as I have not yet decided to work with them. They became interested in me when they learned I'd sold over 11,000 copies of my self-published novel, 33 A.D.

But there's a problem. I'm looking through the contract and I'm not sure some of what they are asking for is standard agency stuff. Of course, I have no basis for comparison, either. I'd love to have an agent, but I'm doing fairly well on my own right now (I've been able to quit my day job to stay home with the baby), so I would rather turn them down than accept a bad contract.

Is there anyone here who is familiar with Literary Agency contracts and would be willing to look over this one? I'd really appreciate it.
 

Phaeal

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CGs on your self-publishing success! My agency has no contract, unless you count the email which confirmed the terms of our relationship, so I can't share my experience there. I'd check out sites like SFWA.org, which has a lot of advice about evaluating agents under the Legal Recourse subsite. Also the AAR (Association of Authors' Representatives) site, which contains its Canon of Ethics.
 

AlishaS

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Congrats on your selfpub success! That is awesome. Also congrats on your agent offer. You might find more help over in the thread Ask an Agent but when I signed a contract with my publisher I did have some help. I will send you a PM ;)

Just wanted to say congrats!
 

CACTUSWENDY

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Good to see ya and congratz David.

No help with contract here....sorry.
 

David McAfee

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Thanks, guys. I had a couple of good, knowledgeable people look at it and most of the things I wondered about are apparently pretty standard stuff. So it looks like I finally have a real agent. I have to send him the signed contracts soon.
 

kaitie

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