Re: Know anything about Easley Literary Agency? Kiesha Easle
A useful agent has not only sold books you've heard of, s/he posts that information on her/his website. If sales info is absent from an agent's website, it's a sign that you need to do some further checking.
There's also no indication that Ms. Easley had professional publishing or agenting experience before setting up her agency. People who come to agenting from non-publishing-related fields rarely manage to make a go of it.
A couple more items of concern, from the agency's contract (here:
www.easleylit.netfirms.co...ract.htm):
- Clauses 8 and 9 contradict each other. Clause 8 empowers the agent to hire co-agents, and sets the commission at 15% to be split between them. Clause 9 sets a commission of 20% for foreign sales. But foreign sales, by definition, require co-agents. So shouldn't foreign sales also be charged at 15%?
- In Clause 11, the agent retains the right to continue to represent foreign rights and other subrights in any contracted work even after the agency agreement has been terminated (this is a clause you may also find in the contracts of some well-established agencies). This is not author-friendly--if you leave your agent (presumably for good cause), why should she be able to hold onto your subrights? Not to mention, bringing subrights with you can make you more attractive to a new agent.
- Victoria