Re: Warning about agents
Yes. You have to commit to an agent. You can change later, but you can only have one agent or agency at a time.
Agents ought not claim rights in books except the right of agenting them, in the case of books authored by their clients; and the continuing right to be the agent of record, in cases where the original deal they made is still in force. The latter persists even if the relationship with the author has ended.
There are good reasons for an agent to continue to be the agent of record for a book. Imagine an agent who's invested a great deal of time, effort, and caring in the polishing and marketing of a writer's work. The agent has only recently concluded a long series of painstaking and laborious negotiations with a major publisher, which ended with the signing of a highly advantageous multi-book contract. The publisher's check for the on-signing payment from that contract will be the first time the agent will have made a dime off this author.
Having the agent of record remain the agent of record, no matter what happens, means the author can't choose this moment to fire the agent, and keep the commission. It also means an author who's been working with one agent for years and years can't just take all the slowly accumulated revenue streams that are the agent's percentage of royalties still trickling in from multiple old book contracts, and reassign the lot of them to the author's new girlfriend who thinks it would be fun to get into the agenting biz.
Does this persistence mean a lackluster agent can go on making money for years and years from a successful book whose success owes nothing to them? It does. You'll be stuck with them until the book goes out of print with its original publisher. And if it should happen that some literary property is wildly successful, the agent of record will be the one handling all the intricate subsidiary deals, from movie options to Latvian translations to the right to reprint excerpts on cupcake wrappers.
Taking on a bad agent is betting against yourself.
One other thing. Phoning your-uncle-the-lawyer to have him go over your contract is a good thought, but it's often a bad move. A lawyer who isn't familiar with publishing contracts, and the industry in general, may come to strange conclusions about perfectly normal, benign provisions in the contract, and miss serious problems that would be spotted right away by someone with more experience.
Personally, I'd go to SFF Net, find an area where a lot of long-term SFWAns hang out, wait for an auspicious moment, and ask briefly and politely whether anyone there can explain the indemnity clause, or reserves against returns, or joint accounting, whatever it is that's puzzling me.
Don't do it unless you have a real contract from a real publisher. Outfits like PA have contracts whose defects are fractal, and everyone will run out of patience trying to explain them.