Pub Rants

STATUS: Worked hard today when I know everyone else was off playing for the three-day weekend. That’s okay though. I had a great time in NZ.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? I MAY KNOW THE WORD by Natalie Merchant

The next clause in my agreement is a snoozer but hey, everyone has to have warranties. My next clause basically states that you, as the author, hold the copyright to the work and that you warrant and represent that you have every right to enter into a publishing agreement for the work. In the event you don’t (and you lied about it), then you indemnify and hold the agency harmless for expenses raised by your breach of the warranties.

Yeah. That’s English.

Then the clause states that we both represent and warrant that we are free to enter in this agreement together and that neither party has a conflict with fulfilling it.

Small potatoes of a clause really. Just wait until you see the one in your publishing contract!

TGIF and have a great Labor Day Holiday Weekend (if you live in the U.S. that is).

STATUS: I’m back. A little jetlagged and a little overwhelmed by the piles on my desk but that’s the price you pay for going away for more than two weeks.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD by Van Morrison

I’m going to take the easy way out and continue my discussion concerning the agency agreement so I don’t have to cast around for a blog idea on these first days back in the office.

What’s up after expenses? Well, for my agreement, I have a clause that states that I can take on other clients—even if their material might be viewed as competing or conflicting with your stuff. I don’t want a client to say “hey, you took on a vampire paranormal romance author and I write vampire paranormals so you shouldn’t have taken her on” or something similar.

And this also alerts new clients that I may take on other authors who write in the same genre as they do.

This clause also states that I also use subagents etc. to sell subrights.

The next clause deals with modification of material. Basically, it states that I won’t make any material changes without author approval but if I need to add a missing comma or something, I won’t need to check back in with the writer before putting it on submission.

What a nightmare it would be if I had to get author approval for EVERY change made to a proposal or manuscript. It would take months to submit anything. So, it’s to expedite things.

Back to my two hundred emails that need to be handled and my piles.

STATUS: Hello from the land of Kiwi. Late this morning, my husband and I took the hike up the Rocky Bay trail on the island of Waiheke (which is just a 20 minute ferry ride from Auckland). It’s about a 2 hour hike (and a bit muddy) but we were excited to reach the top just in time for lunch and a bit of wine tasting at the Te Whau Winery. Guess what? It’s closed on Tuesdays (and yes it is Tuesday already here in NZ). Still, it was a gorgeous hike and a gorgeous day.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? Not listening at the moment but I do have my shuffle with me.

Once we have death figured out, then we have to address taxes. Just kidding. The next clause in the agency agreement deals with expenses and what my agency is entitled to receive as reimbursement from the author.

About two years ago, I actually stopped charging back most expenses to my clients. Why? Because the world of publishing had changed rapidly. These days I email my submissions (with the rare hard copy being sent out by snail mail).The biggest costs were photocopy and delivery. With that pretty much a non-issue, it didn’t seem worth the time to muddle with the accounting by tracking the only expense we end up really having which is FedEx and postage.

Now we do charge back for expenses related to selling subrights. Often we have to buy extra copies of client books in order to send on to foreign publishers and Hollywood co-agents. This can be expensive (and hence the one main charge-back to the clients). Now we try and wrestle as many free copies out of the publishers as we can get but it never seems to be quite enough since we pursue foreign and film subrights aggressively.

Here’s the clause if you want to see how it reads:

6. EXPENSES
NLA will be entitled to receive reimbursement from the Author for the following expenses relative to the representation of a project: special delivery/payment expenses, International/foreign shipping if applicable, costs associated with the selling of all secondary rights, including costs such as purchasing extra books and/or galleys used to sell those secondary rights.

Reproduction costs, postage & delivery, as well as all other normal costs associated to running a business such as office supplies, rent, or utilities are not an author billable expense. Please note that applicable charges are accrued to an author account and reimbursed from the author’s income from publisher payments. Reimbursed deductions will be itemized and supported by receipts.

STATUS: Yep. Guess who’s going on vaca starting tomorrow.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? HEY NINETEEN by Steely Dan

If you’ve been paying attention to my comings and goings (clearly listed on my website news page), you’ll know where I’m going. The land of Frodo and Orlando Bloom.

Oh wait, I’m going to New Zealand—not Middle Earth.

So what I’m trying to say is that I’m going to be gone for a good two weeks and the blogs will most likely be sporadic. It is called a vacation for a reason…

And to send me off on a cheery note, let’s talk about death some more. Many folks had questions about what happens when an agent goes off to the great beyond. You want me to say that XYZ will happen if this occurs and the truth is that there are many answers.

First, it depends on the agent and what corporate structure the agency has in place. For some folks, if the agent dies, the agency ceases to exist as a legal corporate entity.

That’s not true for my limited liability company because it’s not set up that way. Some agents are sole proprietors (not an entity structure I would recommend because of liability issues). Some are LLCs like mine. Some are S-corp corporations. The answer to this question changes depending on the company structure.

Then it depends on what is outlined in the agency agreement and this can vary from agent to agent or by agency.

My agency (and corporate structure) is set so that surviving members of the LLC and my heirs maintain the rights to monies generated from projects previously sold by me (while I was alive) for as long as they are in print. Since I don’t do “in perpetuity,” once a work goes out of print, all rights revert back to the author and the relationship with the agency is at an end. If any projects were on submission during time of death, the author, his or her new agent, and the surviving members of my agency would simply negotiate in good faith concerning those projects.

For my part, I’ll be dead so I won’t care.

And on that note…