Navigating Book Deals: Insights on Agent Involvement and Negotiations (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: So, Jessica, I don't have any good news about a book deal yet, but I have a few questions about...

Speaker 2: More questions?

Speaker 1: Yeah. That's the whole point of this. This was your idea. Alright, so, Jessica... Yeah, James, what's up now? More questions? I don't have any good news about a book deal yet, but I haven't... No. No.

Speaker 2: Not that yet.

Speaker 1: Give it three seconds to start over. I don't have any good news about a book deal yet, but I have a few questions about what I might expect when my book starts.

Speaker 2: No good news, because the book's been out on submission for all of an hour.

Speaker 1: Two. So, for starters, how involved can I expect my agent to be when we receive an offer on the book?

Speaker 2: This is the point where your agent says...

Speaker 1: This is going to breeze right past this one. We did this ten times.

Speaker 2: This is the point when you... when your agent's really going to dig in and do probably the most... well, most work, but most... definitely the most important work. Okay. Because this contract is what's going to set the stage for your career. This is also the time when the two of you will probably talk more than at any other point in your career, because as she's negotiating the contract, the two of you will be talking a lot about the terms, now they came back with this, or we're going to do this, or...

Speaker 1: You're planning. So when we receive an offer, I'll get a phone call or an email with the editor's... Oh, I hope you get a phone call, because this is a big deal. And I'll get, like, the exact offer, I'll get the terms of the offer, and...

Speaker 2: You'll get the details of it. Sometimes there's not a lot. Right. Now, some editors will send you a fully written-up offer letter with the advance and the royalties and all the breakdowns. Others will call and give a more general overview, because the agent knows what everything else is. Like, this is what we're offering, and the rest is standard. Okay. So, there's no rule of what you'll see and get.

Speaker 3: Right, so our sub-rights, and then we have our boilerplates. Yep. So, the agent obviously negotiates the contract?

Speaker 2: Yeah, so the agent does the negotiating, and also the planning. Now, is this an offer that you want to take to auction? Is this a preempt, which means that you will not take it to auction, you will not talk to other editors? Is this sort of your dream place, and the offer is great, so there's no point in going somewhere else? There's a lot of things to consider that your agent will likely discuss with you. She'll have her opinions, and sometimes she just wants to know what your thoughts are. And it's okay to be like, I don't know, whatever you think. But it's also important and okay to ask a lot of questions. This is really new territory for you, and that's understandable. And in some cases, you might not know anybody who's been here before. Right. So, you might have tons of questions and concerns, and I've even had authors really freak out about, well, don't negotiate, what if they pull the deal? So, which doesn't happen, by the way.

Speaker 3: That's a good myth to debunk.

Speaker 2: Yeah, we can't, that's ridiculous. Because your agent's job is to negotiate, and if a publisher pulls a deal because the agent's negotiating, lame. But I've never had it happen. I've never had it happen.