Preview Our Contract

March 02, 2011 | kellermedia | Comments 0

Here you can see an exam­ple of our cur­rent agency con­tract. You are wel­come to review it, ask ques­tions about it, wish it was yours, and so on. In fact, the only thing you can­not do is repro­duce it. It’s copy­righted, a word that will mean a lot more to you when your book comes out. Please note the straight­for­ward lan­guage and easy-to-understand terms we use, which are by all accounts quite fair to us and to you, the author.  As the author of 31 books under 9 pseu­do­nyms, senior agent Wendy Keller is a vocal advo­cate for author’s rights. But don’t take our word for it. Review the con­tract below:

NOTE TO AUTHORS: Don’t sign an unfair con­tract, or any­thing you don’t under­stand, no mat­ter who offers it to you or how eager you are to get an agent.

WE CAN HELP YOU WITH ANY OTHER AGENCY’S or PUBLISHER’S CONTRACTS… some­times even if it has already been signed!

SAMPLE AUTHOR REPRESENTATION AGREEMENT

Rep­re­sen­ta­tion Agreement

This Agree­ment is between Keller Media, Inc., a Cal­i­for­nia cor­po­ra­tion, 22631 Pacific Coast High­way, No. 701, Mal­ibu, CA 90265 here­inafter referred to as “Agency” and “YOUR NAME HERE”, here­inafter referred to as “Author.”

1. AGENCY: The Author appoints Agency as the sole and exclu­sive Agency to advise, arrange and nego­ti­ate for the pub­li­ca­tion, sale, license or any other dis­po­si­tion in any lan­guage, media, form or for­mat my non­fic­tion con­tent, com­menc­ing with the project cur­rently titled, “YOUR TITLE HERE”, here­inafter referred to as the “Work.”

1. PERFORMANCE: The Agency will work to secure the best pos­si­ble offers for the Work in a pro­fes­sional and effi­cient man­ner and bear all related costs of rep­re­sen­ta­tion. The Agency has the right to choose the agent in its employ to aid in place­ment, and may work with sub-agents in spe­cific rights cat­e­gories at its dis­cre­tion. The Agency will always offer its best advice and sug­ges­tions for the improve­ment, mar­ket­ing and dis­po­si­tion of the Work. The Author agrees to care­fully con­sider all advice given.

The Author agrees that if a poten­tial buyer approaches for the Author’s lit­er­ary work or writ­ing ser­vices, that buyer will be referred to the Agency.

If either party approaches the other with an idea but the par­ties do not develop it together, the idea belongs to the party first pre­sent­ing it. That party is free to develop the idea as they see fit.

1. COMPENSATION: The Agency has the right to deduct as com­mis­sion the fol­low­ing listed per­cent­ages of all monies received related in any way to the Work, with the sole excep­tion of speak­ing fees that the Agency did not aid in booking:

a) Fif­teen per­cent (15%) of all income earned from the domes­tic place­ment of the Work;

b) Twenty per­cent (20%) of all income earned from any for­eign, elec­tronic, dig­i­tal, spon­sor­ship, mer­chan­dise, dra­matic, film, per­for­mance or other ancil­lary or sec­ondary right related to the Work. This cov­ers the expense in ship­ping and sell­ing books over­seas, as well as travel costs typ­i­cally incurred in the place­ment of sec­ondary rights. An addi­tional five per­cent (5%) of gross income may be required by a sub-agent if one is used.

c) Thirty per­cent (30%) of gross monies derived from the Agency’s place­ment of the Author as a paid speaker, such com­mis­sion exclu­sive of Author’s travel costs and other reim­burse­ments for Authors direct expenses.

The Agency is enti­tled to the above-mentioned per­cent­ages in 3.a. and 3.b for the legal life of the Work on all agree­ments sub­stan­tially per­tain­ing to or made pos­si­ble by the Work whether they arise from an agree­ment ini­ti­ated or nego­ti­ated by this or another Agency, by the Author or by any third party or cor­po­ra­tion. Speak­ing engage­ments (3.c) not booked by the Agency are not sub­ject to this agreement.

1. TERM OF AGENCY: Most but not all book pro­pos­als sell within 90 days of pre­sen­ta­tion to pub­lish­ing houses. The Agency agrees to work on the Author’s behalf as long as it believes a sale is pos­si­ble, and notify the Author in writ­ing if no sale seems likely. Upon such writ­ten notice, the Author’s oblig­a­tion to Agency ceases for any unsold rights extant in the Work.

If the Agency suc­cess­fully places any right to the Work dur­ing this time, Agency is here­inafter known as “Agency of Record” on the con­tract with the pub­lisher or other third party and is thus enti­tled to par­tic­i­pate in the place­ment of all sec­ondary rights extant within the Work.

If within three (3) months of ces­sa­tion of this Agree­ment a pub­lisher to whom the Work had been sub­mit­ted by the Agency noti­fies the Author or the Agency that it wants to con­tract pub­li­ca­tion of the Work, the Agency is enti­tled to all rights pro­vided under this Agree­ment, includ­ing the right to receive commission.

If the Author has or does cre­ate addi­tional non­fic­tion works prior to the sale of the Work, the Author may offer such to the Agency for review and pos­si­ble rep­re­sen­ta­tion. The Agency is not obliged to accept such works for rep­re­sen­ta­tion. If the Agency declines, the Author is free to take the works else­where with­out oblig­a­tion to the Agency. Any new project taken on for rep­re­sen­ta­tion is wholly sub­ject to the terms of this Agreement.

Upon the sale of the Work herein con­tracted, the Author agrees to give the Agency first right of refusal on Author’s next non-fiction work.

1. RECEIPT and DISBURSAL of FUNDS: All third par­ties acquir­ing rights to the Work in any form or for­mat shall be directed and autho­rized by the Author to remit the Author’s pay­ments to the Agency. Receipt of such pay­ments by the Agency shall be deemed receipt by the Author. The Agency shall remit pay­ments to the Author, after deduct­ing Agency com­mis­sion, not more than ten (10) busi­ness days after monies have been received. There will be a clause in the Author-Publisher con­tract stat­ing these terms and con­di­tions. The Author’s heirs and assigns will respect and adhere to the inten­tions of this Agreement.

1. EXECUTION OF AGREEMENTS: Agency will not enter into agree­ments on behalf of the Work with­out the Author’s approval. No agree­ment is valid with­out the Author’s sig­na­ture unless the Author has expressly pro­vided per­mis­sion for Agency to sign by proxy (usu­ally only applic­a­ble for the sale of translation/foreign rights). Author has the right to review all offers received and make sug­ges­tions for improvement.

1. OWNERSHIP: Author hereby war­rants own­er­ship to all the rights related to the Work and is able to dis­pose of them, that all man­u­scripts are orig­i­nal and are free from any pla­gia­rism, slan­der or libelous con­tent or intent thereof. The Author will keep an orig­i­nal copy of the man­u­script in the Author’s pos­ses­sion and declares that there are no liens or pend­ing legal action against this Work. Author accepts full and com­plete respon­si­bil­ity for the results of the autho­rized dis­po­si­tion of the Work by any third par­ties. Author indem­ni­fies Agency and its employ­ees, sub-contractors, and cor­po­ra­tion from any lia­bil­i­ties, losses, claims, demands, costs (includ­ing those of an attor­ney) and any other expenses aris­ing from or in con­nec­tion with any breach or alleged breach of the foregoing.

1. PREVIOUS EXPOSURE: Prior to or upon sign­ing this Agree­ment, the Author will pro­vide the Agency with a com­plete list of pub­lish­ers, if any, located any­where in the world who have seen the Work or a pro­posal for the Work in any form.

1. RELEASE: The Author acknowl­edges that the Agency does not pur­chase lit­er­ary prop­er­ties and can­not guar­an­tee a sale. Author acknowl­edges that other works may exist in the mar­ket­place which may be sim­i­lar to the Work, and that nei­ther the Agency, its employ­ees or assigns can bear any respon­si­bil­ity for the exis­tence of such com­pet­ing works. The Agency has the right to rep­re­sent sim­i­lar con­tent as long as the rep­re­sen­ta­tion does not inter­fere with the efforts made on behalf of the Work. At the Author’s option, works sub­mit­ted for rep­re­sen­ta­tion can be reg­is­tered with the US Copy­right Office, although it is cus­tom­ary for the pub­lisher to obtain copy­right on behalf of the Author when the work has become a viable com­mer­cial prop­erty as a result of a legally bind­ing con­tract. Author agrees to notify the Agency if such copy­right is obtained prior to the sale of the Work.

10. ENFORCEMENT: In the unlikely event of a dis­pute over any of the terms of this Agree­ment, the par­ties agree to resolve such dis­pute by the pur­suit of arbi­tra­tion through an accred­ited and mutu­ally accept­able arbi­tra­tor. The pre­vail­ing party shall have the right to recover all asso­ci­ated costs from the breach­ing party. In any dis­pute over this Agree­ment, the laws of the State of Cal­i­for­nia apply.

11. ASSIGNMENT and AMENDMENT: This agree­ment shall be bind­ing on both the Author and the Agency. It is not trans­fer­able or assign­a­ble with­out joint writ­ten con­sent. In the event of the death or inabil­ity of either of the par­ties, the heirs, assigns and execu­tors are hereby legally bound. This Agree­ment can­not be can­celed, altered or amended except in writ­ing and signed by both par­ties.

I have read and fully under­stand the terms of this doc­u­ment. In agree­ment, I sign below…

That’s it!  Hope your work is so fab­u­lous we offer YOU one of these soon!

COPYRIGHT © 2010, Keller Media, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Infringe­ment WILL be prosecuted.

Filed Under: KM