By Ron Suppa.
Ron Suppa
Who are these guys anyway?
Wistfully, I tell you that I once had an agent. A good one. A big wig at CAA. Now that person manages literary talent and often acts as a producer of the scripts he manages. This did not endear him further to me as, call me crazy, I kind of like to produce myself. Another mouth to feed on my script didn’t seem like the best idea. But I couldn’t argue with the logic of his career change.
While talent management is not a novel concept, what was once hands-on career guidance for highly-successful actors is now a viable support base for, and income source from, writers as well. The financial carrot is substantial: an agent is limited by law to ten percent of a client’s gross income and cannot produce or otherwise involve himself directly in a client’s film; managers have free reign to take 15 percent or 25 percent or even 50 percent if the client so agrees, and can negotiate freely for those producer credits or other employment on a client’s film.
And, the rub is that anyone can declare themselves to be a literary manager—no training, no tests, no experience required. For qualifications, entertainment industry experience and contacts will do. In theory, managers, among their primary duties, will help a writer find an agent. In California, agents are licensed and bonded to procure employment and negotiate deals, while the services of a personal manager (neither regulated nor franchised) are strictly limited to advice and counsel. Many managers, however, ignore these regulations and solicit jobs for their clients with or without the help of an agent.
With the bigger payday and the chance to produce, former agents seem to take to the management business like a fish to water. This mass exodus has ruffled more than a few feathers in the agency business. When key agents at the top agencies leave to form a management company, many writing clients go with them. Such developments have left agents wondering out loud whether managers are acting as de facto agents. (In California, the argument has reached Sacramento, where legislation is being introduced that would oblige managers to labor under substantially the same rules as agents.)
So do I need a literary manager?
Maybe. Agents are busier than ever these days, with many new markets to cover and a heavy concentration on packaging clients as a means of circumventing the straight ten percent commission. That leaves little time for grooming new writers, let alone nurturing (hand-holding) an existing client’s career. Writers want some attention and mostly, simply put, writers want work. And despite the legal constraint in California against managers seeking or obtaining work for their clients, the implication of the management relationship is that the manager will build or enhance the writer’s earning capacity.
In practice, a manager can gain employment for his clients and still remain within the law. For example, he can help obtain agency representation or switch the writer to an agent who will more aggressively market the writer and his work. He can prod the agent to action with calls a writer may be loath to make himself. He can “help” the agent arrange meetings with producers, production company executives and others in order to more widely expose the writer and his work to the film community.
The legal limits on the manager’s role sometimes makes for curious justice. As a young lawyer, I represented a Country & Western singer who was suing her manager of ten years after a personal falling out. Her complaint, ironically enough, was that the manager had solicited bookings for her during a rough period when her agents had let her career simmer on the back burner. Though the manager’s efforts were, at that time, well intentioned and encouraged, the judge ordered all of his hard-earned commissions forfeited.
Managers can also help build the rest of the writer’s support team, such as publicist, entertainment attorney, business manager or industry-savvy accountant. She (intentionally switching gender here – at least half the managers are women) may even help a blocked writer find a writing partner to get the creative juices flowing again.
Creatively, she can help identify the current needs of the marketplace and serve as a critical reader of the writer’s work before it goes out to potential agents or buyers or can act as a test audience for a writer’s pitch. And, managers can make discreet inquiries and receive valuable feedback on what worked or didn’t work at those pitch meetings.
Perhaps most important for writers who feel isolated at their computers, the manager can serve as a sounding board for the writer’s concerns about the day to day activities of the film business and the author’s place in it. A good manager keeps in constant touch with his client, unlike an agent who may speak with his client only upon the delivery of a new script to market.
As if all that was not enough bang for your buck, remember that the manager often toils long and hard and far in advance of any money changing hands. Many managers have few clients and charge as little as five percent of the client’s gross income (though ten or fifteen is more the norm) for developing (or engineering from scratch) a client’s career.
Okay, so what’s the catch?
The manager-client bond is often the closest of all professional relationships in the entertainment industry and there is much to recommend it. But, any seasoned veteran knows that where money can be made from the exploitation of talent, abuse is possible.
The manager being attached to a client’s project—as a producer, for example—is not an uncommon development in the manager-client association. Though not necessarily an unwelcome one. For the writer, it may mean acquiring an instant producer for a new screenplay as well as a chance to be in business with a trusted ally (hopefully garnering greater respect for his contribution and enjoying an improved status during production). For the manager, a writer for a client is like getting a free option on good screen material as well as providing a means to profit from the alliance in a way prohibited to agents.
But, this kind of close relationship can also lead to a conflict of interest and fiduciary duty concerns that the writer must vigilantly monitor; i.e. is the manager working primarily for you or for him? What if a studio wants to bid $1,000,000 for your screenplay, but views you manager-cum-producer as excess baggage—can he hold up your deal with demands of his own? Horror stories have been known to happen, especially if a management contract expressly grants permission for your manager to act as producer of your projects.
Will I be asked to sign a contract?
The core of any management relationship is built on trust. Ideally, when the arrangement is no longer working, the parties should be able to shake hands and go their separate ways. But ours is not an ideal world; you will most likely be asked to sign a contract.
Experience dictates that it’s better if the terms of the contract are as specific as possible. Unlike an agency contract, which allows the writer to quit the agency if no work is obtained within a 90 day period, a typical management pact is harder to exit gracefully. A writer can find himself contractually bound to a failing relationship or to a vague notion of what services are expected on his behalf.
Forewarned is forearmed; let the following strategies serve as a guideline for your agreement:
- Be certain that the contract clearly spells out the duties of the manager and the responsibilities of the writer over the term of the contract. These duties can be so specific as to set forth the “meet and greet” contacts the manager will arrange, the number of times a week the manager will contact the writer, and the circumstances under which both parties can be released from the contract.
- Presumably, you will want a manager held in high esteem in the industry and it is the personal attention you will receive from them that sparks your interest to begin with. Therefore, you do not want the manager to be free to delegate or assign his duties to third parties without your approval. Similarly, while you may want help in finding an agent or lawyer, you do not want to grant the manager the right to form these associations without your prior consent.
- Finally, be wary of giving your manager power of attorney over any of your affairs, particularly the incurring of debt, the signing of contracts on your behalf or the right to endorse and cash checks payable to you. Also, be careful about granting the right to act as or be credited or paid as a “producer” of your work on the screen.
Problems can arise in any business relationship, but if the writer and manager respect and value the other’s contribution, it can lead to a valuable partnership in a lonely business. Sadly, some writers find themselves employing the attorney the manager may have recommended to find a way out of the management contract that same attorney advised them to sign.
Managers, like agents, are best found via personal recommendations.
Did you find this article interesting? Then why not take a look at Ron Suppa’s DVD, What to Do After It’s Written, available to purchase from our store?
