We sent you a Representation Agreement and you have questions? Understandably! If you have questions, please let us know! We are here to answer any questions you have. These are our most popular questions!! Send us an email and we will schedule a Zoom if you want to talk “in person”.
Q1. How will I know where I am in the submission process?
A1. Every Friday at 8 am CST, I submit updates to all my authors. The updates reflect my new submissions, rejections & actual rejection responses, and what is pending. Some weeks will have more submissions than others, depending on what editors are open to your work style for that week.
Q2. Why do you tell me the process is slow?
A2. I inform all my authors of this. Many people think once they get an agent, they are automatically going to be instantly published. I’m sure you are aware of this, but I’ve been questioned by a couple of my authors about time elements. Unfortunately, I can’t control the industry time elements! Also, some repped authors will never get published. I will do my best to try, though!
Q3. Do you use subagents?
A3. Subagents would sometimes be used for foreign translation rights. For instance, right now I have a subagent in Israel for a novel I am repping. Since I am not familiar with the rights and Hebrew language, an agent is working on the deal for me there. What happens in that scenario, is instead of 15% commission, 20% is charged and I split it 10%/10% with the subagent.
Q4. Speaking of fees, I do not have to pay anything up front will I?
A4. You never pay anything up front! So, basically, whatever happens, I work completely free. If an offer is made, the publisher pays Inscriptions Literary. Upon receipt of the publisher payment, a 15% agent fee is removed and the other 85% of the payment from the publisher is paid out to you from Inscriptions Literary. You will receive publisher payment breakdowns along with your payment so you can see the paper trail. If you meet your advance payment, royalties will come in and they are paid the same way as the advance. Also, if any international offers are made, they generally go through the publisher (who would send the payments to Inscriptions Literary, and you would make commissions off all the sales (-15% the agency earns). and it wouldn’t cost you anything. If a publisher does not want world rights, I can then sell them off separately myself (using a subagent for translation rights and doing my own for English-speaking countries).
Q5. About paragraph 4 of the contract: if I understand this correctly, I need to approach you first with any new or old ideas I have but if you turn me down, then I can try another agent? Is that correct?
A5. Yes! For instance, I have a picture book author who specializes in Social-emotional books. Since I am not open to social-emotional books, she sends them to me first, then I tell her I am not a good fit for them. She can then take them to other agents. Since I am already representing about 5 of her books, you can see I take some, and reject some–or I may take all if I feel they are up my alley! I rep per book.
Q6. About paragraph 7: by “warrants ownership”, this does mean that I own my work, right?
A6. YES! Your work is your work! As long as I am representing it, you have full say over any and all things regarding your work! So, when a publisher would offer a deal, I would look over the contract first to make sure the offer is fair and all rights are fairly represented in the contract, then if I feel something is off, I resubmit it to them with my requested changes, then once I feel it is suitable, I send it to you to decide over. No rights will ever be removed from you. In most cases, you own the copyright, but the publisher will own print rights, usually, they expire after XX amount of years and then they could revert back to you to find a new publisher. Sometimes, the large % of publishers will want to buy the copyright (full assignment) instead of the rights to print (license). That is all up to you in the long run, though! Nothing goes through without your signature.
Q7. I can’t, and won’t be able to pay any money up front. I don’t want to self-publish or use a hybrid, either.
A7. I will never ask you to! I only submit to traditional publishers that PAY YOU. I don’t submit to hybrids or self-publishers. Also, sometimes out of the blue, you will be contacted with “publishing offers” from various companies, which have nothing to do with my submissions. Any editor I submit to will ONLY CONTACT ME FIRST. You won’t be involved in the process until after you sign an offer from the publisher, then they work with you. Any phone calls or emails you get with “publishing deals” are NOT from my submissions! Any offers that come to me for your work are offers to PAY YOU, and you will never be asked to pay for your book to be published!
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