Dear Miss Snark,
I've searched the Snarkarchives (thanks, Miss Adventure) but can't find anything about this.
Five years ago an editor said she'd like to see my story again if I made certain changes. I wasn't able to do them at that time but now I have.
The original submission was made through my agent. Two years ago we parted ways and I'm planning to re-submit on my own. Is that horribly unethical? If the editor makes an offer, should my ex-agent get 15% since she made first contact?
Get out your contract with your former agent. Look at the paragraph that says "bloodsucking leach-length of time fangs are inserted". Sometimes this will also say "duration of agreement" or "commissions".
Most likely there will be wording that addresses this issue. Mine says I get a piece of you for a year after the contract is over if you sell to someone I pitched to.
If you DON'T have a contract, well, now you know why you should. Still and all, a year is pretty much fair, and five years is more than fair.
Bottom line: It's not unethical to resubmit and if you sell it, not pay a commission.
5 comments:
Can you spell P-R-O-C-R-A-T-I-N-A-T-E?
sure.
P-R-O-C-R-A-S-T-I-N-A-T-E.
Do I win?
LOL...I couldn't get past the part where it took five years to resubmit!
Five years? That's nuthin.
I only just got around [Jan 2006] to shopping a book I wrote in 1997. An editor at Kensington had advised me back then to make some changes and resubmit and I never got back to her.
I now have a terrific agent who's negotiating a two-book deal for me with a top shelf publisher. I'm previously unpubbed, and have no contacts in the biz.
So to you procrastinators out there: let them laugh.
Sometimes these Magnum Opuses (sp?) just have to sit & ferment for a while.
I have a pending deal for a book I first scribbled in 1996. It's improved since then. A lot, I hope.
T2, whose verification word is gcygklgs, which is how a half-giggle, half-snort is actually spelled
Post a Comment