Re: Contract??

[Art Campbell <artc -at- WORLD -dot- STD -dot- COM>]

Peter Montgomery <MONTGOMERY -at- camins -dot- camosun -dot- bc -dot- ca> writes:

>> Date: Thu, 13 May 1993 17:37:55 +0000 (GMT) Thus spake Art Campbell
> <artc -at- WORLD -dot- STD -dot- COM>

>AC>The Writer's Digest books and magazines always list a herd of agents.
>AC>
>AC>If you'd like the name and number of the one who negotiated my last
>AC>third party book, send me some e-mail . . .

>Agents can be just as bad as publishers.

Probably true. I talked to several before I found one I liked and who was
interested in pushing the project(s) I had in mind.

Why would you want to sign with either a bad agent or a
bad publisher, though? If you don't like the person, the deal, or anything
else about the situation, you shouldn't be in it.

In either case, talk to clients before signing anything.

However, the agent works for you, not the publisher.

As a book author, I'd rather have someone available to me
who a.) knows the ropes, b.) likes to haggle over deals, and c.) knows
how to market a book idea do those things for me. I'm a writer -- I like
to write. I don't get a charge out of doing a, b, and c in addition to
writing. So someone else does those things.

....

>writers say a beginner shouldn't go near an agent until said
>beginner has several publications under the belt, and so can dictate
>better terms.

Well, perhaps. But the flip side of this statement implies that you've
got to pay dues by writing several books for less-than-"better" terms
before you can get those "better" terms.

I don't think I'd want to do that, but your mileage may vary.

>Peter

Write on,
Art
--
Art Campbell          artc -at- world -dot- std -dot- com            72227 -dot- 1375 -at- compuserve -dot- com
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