: Re: How do collaborating authors choose an agent? If two authors collaborate, and each of them already has an agent - then who handles the collaborative work? Do the authors decide to be jointly

@Bryan361

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This is an old question, but it popped up in my feed, so thought I'd
answer it for future viewers.

I just checked my agency contract (it's a major London agency and I know I'm bound to that agency for all my written work) and there is no mention of collaborative work.

I can see a major issue here.

Though agents represent authors not books, publishers buy books, not authors.

So, if two agents are involved with the same book, unless they agree to work together, they will be pitching against each other for a publishing deal. If one agent secures a deal, they will want to keep 100% of their 15% of the advance/royalties (having done the work to secure that deal) leaving the other agent feeling like they missed out.

It's unlikely that your agency contracts aren't binding, so Lazurus is right, you will have to discuss this in detail with each agent and work out a deal that's fair to everyone involved.

Agents (in my experience) like friendly competition. So, they may agree that, if they're pitching against each other, the winning agent will get 10% of the deal and the losing agent will get 5%.

But, until you work it out with them, it's a question only your agents can answer.

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