AGENTING WITHOUT A LICENSE

Are Literary Agents Regulated? How About Movie Agents?

HERE’S SOMETHING YOU MAY NOT KNOW: Literary agents do not have to be licensed. Anybody can be a literary agent. Other than complying with laws governing the handling of client money (and we’ll take that up in due course), literary agent commissions, practices and conduct are not regulated. A literary agent can be careless, sloppy, incompetent, rude, crude and even despicable but short of running away with your money there are few transgressions literary agents can commit that will provoke legal sanction by state authorities.

That is not to say that literary agents aren't subject to censure, bad publicity, peer pressure or civil lawsuits for sins like incompetence or negligence. One test of reputability is whether an agent or agency is a member of The Association of American Literary Agents. The AALA is a not-for-profit professional organization. As it is not a guild it cannot collectively bargain with publishers. It has, however, set high professional and ethical standards for its members, who are pledged to uphold the organization’s Canon of Ethics. “Full commitment to honorable and ethical business practices is crucial to our work,” reads the preface to AALA’s Canon. This code, which I urge every author to read, abjures such practices as charging reading fees to authors, holding client money for too long, representing both buyer and seller in the same transaction, and participating in packaging deal fees for television and film adaptations of their client’s work. Violations are subject to a variety of sanctions.

On the other hand, talent agencies, which handle screenwriters among their clientele, are governed by the California Labor Code, whose regulations and strictures are summarized in an intimidatingly detailed rule book that would-be agents are well advised to study. Under the California Talent Agencies Act, agencies are licensed by the California Labor Commissioner.

“The TAA does not set commission rates but does require that every licensed talent agency must file with the Labor Commissioner a schedule of fees they charge and collect from artists. “Artists” (or “Talent”) are defined by the TAA as “actors and actresses rendering services on the legitimate stage and in the production of motion pictures, radio artists, musical artists, musical organizations, directors of legitimate stage, motion picture and radio productions, musical directors, [screen] writers, cinematographers, composers, lyricists, arrangers, models, and other artists and persons rendering professional services in motion pictures, theatrical, radio, television and other entertainment enterprises.”

It may come as a jolt to book authors but under the TAA’s definition you do not qualify as artists or “talent”.

If literary agents are not licensed, how do you know if your agent or prospective agent is reliable? There is a variety of ways to check on their credentials, track record and reputation:

• Visit their website and review the books and authors they handle

• Search for red flag alerts on watchdog websites or social media

• Ascertain if they are members of AALA, which vets the professional qualifications of applicants and requires members to pledge to uphold the Canon of Ethics. (It should be noted however that membership in AALA is not an absolute guarantee of reliability, nor is non-membership an indication of the opposite.)

• If an agency is not a member, ask them if they at least uphold the principles of the Canon of Ethics

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Richard Curtis's books on publishing are available at Open Road https://openroadmedia.com/search-results/books/Richard%20Curtis