Canadian Agent

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What country do you live in?

My ideal agent lives in U.S and I live in Canada (though I was born in U.S). Many agents have their clients across the pond from them. I think it has to do with fit. You might be better served to ask the agent you are interested in general to be sure

ExposingCorruption said:

I live in the Western United States. I haven't queried him yet but I intend to do so. I just wanted to know if anyone saw a possible problem with a U.S. author/resident having an agent in Canada.

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There are plenty of Canadian authors who have agents in the states -Robyn Harding is one of them. She lives in Vancouver, yet had an agent in NY.

I know one of the AW members who is Canadian, mentioned her agent is in the UK, so I'm thinking the reverse shouldn't cause any problems - plus the strong Canadian dollar could work in your favour.

In today's day of email and video conferencing etc, communication and distance is no longer a problem.

Gina M

Gina M said:

...plus the strong Canadian dollar could work in your favour.

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How would that make any difference?

Julie Worth said:

How would that make any difference?

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Before our dollar was so strong, we'd lose money when exchanging or dealing with American money/business.

Now that our dollar is stronger, the exchange rate works in our favour.

As Canada's economy is so strong right now, that gives Canadian businesses (potential agent) more leverage.

I'd just make sure all offers are quoted in Canadian dollars

I'm guessing those would involve foreign rights (for a US author). But notice I said guess.

ExposingCorruption said:

As long as we're on the subject, I saw a Canadian agent who sold books to "Penguin Canada" and "Doubleday Canada." Is there any difference between the NY publishers and these Canadian branches of the NY publishers?

In other words, if she sold my book to Penguin Canada or Doubleday Canada, would it be the same as selling my book to Penguin or Doubleday in NY?

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I know my fav author John Grisham *looks at book in front of my face* is also published by Doubleday. Doubleday has many branches. As I look inside I see:

DOUBLEDAY

New York London Toronto Sydney Auckland

This is the Canadian version. It is just the moving across borders things. For the HP books Bloomsbury publishes them in UK, I think Raincoast or whoever in Canada and etc. Same language but different country.

Penguin is THE PENGUIN GROUP in The United Kingdom, in United States, Canada, and all the places Doubleday has as well. Speaking of Doubleday one of the editors is leaving...a big hitter. She said she's off to the next big adventure.

Normally, a book is sold to the US publisher, and they in turn sell copies to the Canadians. For most titles published in the US, Canadian sales are a tiny fraction of the whole despite Canada's geographic size.

Canada is not usually a "foreign sale" for two reasons: 1) Publishers normally buy North American or World rights, and NA rights include Canada. 2) For the major houses, there is no separate publication for Canada; it's just distribution.

Ah good point. I'd forgotten that the rights were NA rather than US. I stand corrected.

Apparently they can be split, and often are when working through Canadian agents. There's a thread on this in the RoundTable forum right now.

You mention the agent's track record -- were the sales to US or Canadian publishers?

A friend's agent lives in Canada (after having worked in NY publishing) and most (if not all) of her sales are to US publishers.

Gina M said:

Before our dollar was so strong, we'd lose money when exchanging or dealing with American money/business.

Now that our dollar is stronger, the exchange rate works in our favour.

As Canada's economy is so strong right now, that gives Canadian businesses (potential agent) more leverage.

I'd just make sure all offers are quoted in Canadian dollars

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Huh? Do you imagine a US publisher won't take the exchange rate into consideration when making an offer?

ExposingCorruption said:

As long as we're on the subject, I saw a Canadian agent who sold books to "Penguin Canada" and "Doubleday Canada." Is there any difference between the NY publishers and these Canadian branches of the NY publishers?

In other words, if she sold my book to Penguin Canada or Doubleday Canada, would it be the same as selling my book to Penguin or Doubleday in NY?

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They are the same companies, but different branches and markets. Doubleday Canada, Knopf Can, Penguin Can, etc all have independent publishing programs (ie, they acquire, edit and publish books on their own) as well as handling distribution for the books published by other branches of the imprint (Doubleday UK, Penguin India, etc).

The short answer to your question is that if you sell your book to Doubleday Canada, you are probably not also selling it to Doubleday US pro forma -- it will likely be a Canadian rights deal. Conversely, if you sell it to Doubleday US, Doubleday Can will probably have distribution of that edition -- it will probably be a NA deal.

Julie Worth said:

Huh? Do you imagine a US publisher won't take the exchange rate into consideration when making an offer?

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I can't imagine that it would be a major concern for them. They're paying the amount in their currency for rights in their market - why should they worry what the exchange rate results in?

Julie Worth said:

Huh? Do you imagine a US publisher won't take the exchange rate into consideration when making an offer?

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I have no idea. I have a brother who is Canadian and working in the States. His contract is in American dollars, however, this is not stated, just assumed.

My brother in law, again Canadian, working in the States for another American company, has a contract that is in Canadian dollars - again not stated just assumed.

Two very similar situations - both American companies with different processes - both not stated very clearly.

I really have no idea how this ( if it even would), may transpire into writing contracts, it's just interesting that there doesn't seem to be a standard.

My preference would be a contract in whatever currency was strongest at the time - ha ha.

My foreign advances are in pounds, euros and american dollars depending on the contract- it is something the agent and publisher work out...
fyi it takes so long to get your money that any advantage re: worth of the dollar would be a crap shoot...

Hey EC - the US deal (which was actually for world rights excluding Canada) was in place about 8 months before Random published the book up here, so no, I don't think they bought it based on the Canadian track record.

I used the same agent for both deals -- Anne McDermid, based in Toronto. The sub-rights (Israel, Holland, Germany, Commonwealth Englich exc Canada, book clubs, etc) were sold by the St Martin's rights department, with Anne's participation.

The only other thing she's not handling directly are the film rights, which are being repped out of LA.

It's probably impossible to say how much of an impact it had - some, I suspect. It's likely that having the Canadian deal made them look at the book somewhat differently than they would with an unsold first novel.

On the other hand, the US and Canada are quite different markets when it comes to fiction, and having a Canadian deal wouldn't necessarily make the book more attractive to US publishers... In fact, the opposite might be true.

But, like everything, it depends on the book. Before I Wake is, for lack of a better way of putting it, quite unCanLit. Nor is it strictly commercial. It's... weird.

I think that if your focus is getting a big NY deal, you should get an agent who works primarily in the American market, probably meaning an agent who lives in America, or at least those types of agents should be at the top of your list. Assuming that there are still American agents left available to query, why would you choose to submit to an agent who sells books mainly for a country's market that isn't your primary concern?