Agency agreement questions

Foreign rights should have a total of 20% commission. Your agent and the foreign agent split this. Not sure if it's an even split 10/10 or if it's 15/5.

As far as the length of time allowable for deal activity after termination, I'm not sure there's a standard. One of my contracts allowed the agent six months. The one I'm currently in has no time limit (I believe) for the agent to conclude sales activities that were initiated prior to termination.

NAwriter said:

I've had a lawyer review my agency agreement and I've chatted with a few authors that are already represented by my agency, but I'd like a few more opinions about the subject to see if these are standard terms.

Two questions:

--When signing an agreement about foreign rights, is it industry standard to pay a domestic agent 20% and a corresponding foreign agent 20%? Or does the foreign agent's cut come from the domestic agent's 20%?

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On foreign rights it's usual to pay just one commission of 20%, but I have seen some agencies charge a slightly higher amount. You definitely should not expect to pay a total of 40%: that is not at all usual.

The split of that 20% depends on the agreement your agent has with her subagents, but it's really not your concern.

--If an author/agent terminates an agreement, what's the standard amount of time that the agent has to finalize or sell negotiations. A few months? years?

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If Agent A introduces your book to a particular editor then if the book eventually goes on to sell to that editor, even if the sale happens a year or more down the road, it's likely that Agent A will expect a commission.

If your agent has submitted your book and you terminate your agreement with her, it's usual for the agent to withdraw all submissions. If your agent is in the middle of negotiations when you terminate your agreement with her, then your agent is going to be irked by you and might not put herself out to make the best deal possible. It would perhaps be best not to terminate your agreement at this point!

1 * Standard is 20-25% on foreign. I have heard of both - but I have never heard of MORE than that. However they split it, as others have said, does not affect you.

2 * It should say that pretty clearly in the agency agreement. Ours, for example, says that you can terminate at any time in writing, but any submission we make that results in a sale will be ours. (That way we won't, say, do all the work, put a book on submission, then you fire us the next day -- nope, we'd still get the sale.)

If you really want to terminate while things are still on submission, I'd check in with the editors -- if there IS interest, I'd follow up and finish any offer. If there ISN'T interest, I'd simply send you the declines or withdraw any rogue submissions and bid you good day.