commission question

Hi all,

An agent recently contacted me about shopping the film rights to a book I have published. The only problem? He wants a 30 percent commission.

There are a few mitigating factors, the primary one being that I write in Spanish about issues in Latin America, and this agent has significant contacts in Mexico, where the film would likely be made. Also, time is somewhat of an issue. The book is about recent events that could easily be turned into a movie by someone else. So by the time I find another agent, I could be watching previews for another version on Netflix.

So my question becomes, what would you do?

Thanks for any input.

Old Hack said:

Can you tell us who the agent is? Because that doesn't sound right to me.

Click to expand...

Normally I wouldn't have a problem telling people who it is, but in this case I will decline only because there is a zero percent chance he will ever deal with another author. I can say he's based in Florida and deals mainly with Latin musicians and athletes. So he isn't out trying to attract authors. What happened is that he heard about my book through a third party and thought it would make a great television show. Since he has contacts in the entertainment industry, I imagine he thought it would be an easy way to make a quick buck with almost no work involved.

Ironically, if he hadn't gotten greedy or at least googled "how much commission does an agent receive when he negotiates film rights for a book," he would have realized his terms were wildly outside the norm.

In any event, thanks Lane for the input. I somewhat already knew the answer to my question, but I wanted to put it out there to see if there was any chance I was wrong as I don't have any first-hand experience in dealing with these type of issues.

Aggy B. said:

Hmm. Yeah. that seems a bit high. If he's planning on dealing with subagents in Latin America, though, those percentages are not far off the mark. (Obviously, if you think it's too high, then look for someone else. Personally, I would be more wary of someone who doesn't normally rep literary work getting involved than I would be about the proposed commission. )

Click to expand...

That's two interesting points. He does have to deal with subagents, so that could justify the higher percentage. As far as his lack of literary experience, that is a concern, but he does have a lot of entertainment experience (former HBO executive). So he has been on the other end of these transactions. Also, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of people acting as these kind of agents in this part of the world, so if you are the only player in town, you somewhat get to set the market.

In any event, thanks for your insight. I will update this thread as things progress.

I just wanted to update this thread, since it has turned into a decent outcome.

A production company has optioned the book, and the offer is more than generous ($5k for a one-year option, $100k if it goes to production.) I did this without an agent, as the production company contacted our publisher directly, and their reps negotiated the deal. I probably left some money on the table, but I think having a good relationship with both the production company and my publisher is worth it. I have a second book coming out this year and am working on a third book, so I would like to get a reputation as someone who is easy to deal with. I may be approaching this from a somewhat naive standpoint, but I think this is a pretty stress-free way to approach things, and if I can consistently provide them with good stories, I won't have to worry about the ins and outs of this deal.

Thank you guys for the kind words. I would note that I joined this site in 2012, and I started writing as a hobby some 20 years before that, so the journey to success hasn't exactly been easy. But I never gave up, and almost overnight went from someone convinced - by almost three decades of rejection - that I would never get anywhere in this profession to someone whose publisher is constantly asking "So what's your next project" and who now has to reject queries from agents, which, to be honest and a little petty, is a pretty nice feeling.