QueryTracker Community
October 23, 2017, 05:32:02 PM *
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News:
 
   Home   Help Search Login Register  
Note: This forum uses different usernames and passwords than those of the main QueryTracker site. 
Please register if you want to post messages.

This forum is also accessible by the public (including search engines).
Pages: [1] 2   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Other Country Agents  (Read 881 times)
atwhatcost
Jr. Member
**

Karma: 3
Offline Offline

Posts: 29


« on: August 04, 2017, 10:38:30 AM »

Do agents in the UK, Canada, Australia, etc. want to represent an American?

And, if they do, what does that do to "foreign rights?"
Logged
Patrick
Administrator
Hero Member
*****

Karma: 3424
Online Online

Posts: 3618



« Reply #1 on: August 04, 2017, 10:57:46 AM »

Some do and some don't. You have to look at their individual websites and see what they say. If they don't explicitly say either way, then you can assume they do and go ahead and query them. Can't hurt.

As far as foreign rights go, it probably doesn't matter where your agent is located, but instead, where the publisher is located. I think that will better define what is considered foreign and what is not.
Logged
koji
Full Member
***

Karma: 5
Offline Offline

Posts: 57


« Reply #2 on: August 04, 2017, 12:26:52 PM »

As far as I understand, most agents consider foreign rights where the publisher they are selling to is... so if you are an American working with a UK agent, and they sell your book to a UK publisher, you will be under domestic rights, but if they sell your book to a US publisher, you will be under foreign rights.

I could be wrong on that- but that is what I understood...
Logged
atwhatcost
Jr. Member
**

Karma: 3
Offline Offline

Posts: 29


« Reply #3 on: August 05, 2017, 09:40:55 AM »

Thank you both.
Logged
skribbler
Full Member
***

Karma: 14
Offline Offline

Posts: 89



« Reply #4 on: August 07, 2017, 02:55:59 PM »

It does beg the question of why you'd want a UK agent (or Canada, etc.) in the first place, though.
Logged
atwhatcost
Jr. Member
**

Karma: 3
Offline Offline

Posts: 29


« Reply #5 on: August 09, 2017, 01:09:51 PM »

It does beg the question of why you'd want a UK agent (or Canada, etc.) in the first place, though.
Target audience.

Novel about stuffed animals -- mostly teddy bears. The UK and Oz are more into teddy bears than the US.

And, it's not like I'm against agents in the US. I'm American, so...

As for Canada? I used to vacation there so often, I can say that I've lived there for over a year. So, I like Canadians too.

But, now that the world has become a much smaller place with the Internet, why is it a problem to go outside the country? The vast majority of agents are in NYC, and yet the vast majority of authors are not. In my mind, there isn't a big difference between jumping two time zones to find an agent than there is in jumping continents to find one.

Whatever your genre is, can you think of THE book (other than your own) that you love the most in that genre? Wouldn't it be great to get that author's agent? Deep down, where no one sees you drooling, wouldn't that thrill you to the bone? Same here! And in both cases, (I can't make up my mind which book I like the most), the agent is in the UK.
Logged
Sarah Ahiers (Falen)
Hero Member
*****

Karma: 776
Offline Offline

Posts: 7828


This, too, shall pass


WWW
« Reply #6 on: August 09, 2017, 02:21:17 PM »

In my mind, there isn't a big difference between jumping two time zones to find an agent than there is in jumping continents to find one.

Taxes, though. Taxes will be a bitch.
Logged

Repped by Mollie Glick of CAA
ASSASSIN'S HEART 2016 HarperTeen
I hang out at Sarah Ahiers Writes
Author Website
skribbler
Full Member
***

Karma: 14
Offline Offline

Posts: 89



« Reply #7 on: August 09, 2017, 02:54:02 PM »

As much as the internet has connected us all, a whole lot of agenting is personal, face-to-face contacts. And though most authors don't live in NYC, the biggest publishers are there, which is why most of the big agents are there. There are all kinds of successful agents elsewhere, including L.A., Toronto, London, etc., and approaching the agents for the books similar to yours is smart. Put them on your list. But have a list, and make sure it's mostly US agents, no matter what your perception of the market is. Agents by and large know the market better than we do, because it's their job. And one big part of their job is sales of foreign rights. With the right person, you'll have no problem getting the book sold in Canada, UK and elsewhere. But purposely skipping the US - the largest English language market in the world - is perverse, to put it most bluntly. I know you're not thinking of it that way, but if you're actually avoiding US agents, that's essentially what you're doing.
Logged
atwhatcost
Jr. Member
**

Karma: 3
Offline Offline

Posts: 29


« Reply #8 on: August 10, 2017, 02:18:22 PM »

In my mind, there isn't a big difference between jumping two time zones to find an agent than there is in jumping continents to find one.

Taxes, though. Taxes will be a bitch.
How so? (I haven't really considered the tax issue. Never thought I'd be getting fortunes to worry about it.)
Logged
Sarah Ahiers (Falen)
Hero Member
*****

Karma: 776
Offline Offline

Posts: 7828


This, too, shall pass


WWW
« Reply #9 on: August 10, 2017, 04:16:23 PM »

In my mind, there isn't a big difference between jumping two time zones to find an agent than there is in jumping continents to find one.

Taxes, though. Taxes will be a bitch.
How so? (I haven't really considered the tax issue. Never thought I'd be getting fortunes to worry about it.)

You living in a different country from where your income is coming from is always a PITA when dealing with taxes. Less of a pain if you have a tax professional do it for you.

And unless you're getting $0 advance, you have to worry about taxes.
Logged

Repped by Mollie Glick of CAA
ASSASSIN'S HEART 2016 HarperTeen
I hang out at Sarah Ahiers Writes
Author Website
Munley
Sr. Member
****

Karma: 27
Offline Offline

Posts: 117


Atlantic Canada


« Reply #10 on: August 10, 2017, 07:14:18 PM »

Taxes were a real pain for us when we first immigrated from Canada from the U.S. ten years ago. We both have jobs here as well as small businesses (freelance editing and writing).

Since we are still U.S. citizens, we must file the U.S. 1040 and all the business forms, like Schedule C,  and we have to do the business forms in Canada. Unlike the U.S., where we file as "married, filing jointly," you cannot file a joint return in Canada. But you can swap some stuff, like certain unused credits from one spouse to another -- so you really have to learn a different way of doing things.

Another tax oddity concerns voting. Unless we want to pay income tax to the U.S. state we are registered in (Pennsylvania), we can vote only in Federal U.S. elections (president and members of congress for Pennsylvania) -- no state or local voting in the U.S.  And those state taxes would be in addition to the taxes we pay the Canadian province we live in.

Taxes go by treaties between countries. In our case, Canada gets first dibs on our taxes, even though all of our self-employment (writing/editing) income is from U.S. sources and we are not Canadian citizens, but we officially live in Canada. U.S. gets some beyond a certain income threshold.

So, yes, it can get complicated.
Logged
atwhatcost
Jr. Member
**

Karma: 3
Offline Offline

Posts: 29


« Reply #11 on: August 10, 2017, 07:56:20 PM »

In my mind, there isn't a big difference between jumping two time zones to find an agent than there is in jumping continents to find one.

Taxes, though. Taxes will be a bitch.
How so? (I haven't really considered the tax issue. Never thought I'd be getting fortunes to worry about it.)

You living in a different country from where your income is coming from is always a PITA when dealing with taxes. Less of a pain if you have a tax professional do it for you.

And unless you're getting $0 advance, you have to worry about taxes.
Actually, we're below the income tax requirements enough that it depends on how much of an advance I get. (Who says being poor is all negative? lol)
Logged
atwhatcost
Jr. Member
**

Karma: 3
Offline Offline

Posts: 29


« Reply #12 on: August 10, 2017, 08:05:28 PM »

Dang it! Part of the reason I wrote this was for additional income. I really don't think of myself as the next Rowling or King. Would be happy if it paid our sewer bill twice a year. Dang! Completely forgot about filing incomes, other than remembering my foray into the world of Schedule C when I started my own business. (Became disabled shortly after filing for the second year.)

Hmm, now I have to hope it makes enough money that we don't lose more money from filing taxes than I make from the sale.  crazy
Logged
Sarah Ahiers (Falen)
Hero Member
*****

Karma: 776
Offline Offline

Posts: 7828


This, too, shall pass


WWW
« Reply #13 on: August 11, 2017, 07:42:45 AM »

Taxes on my advance were about 40%. And then paying quarterly taxes for the next year (calculated on what you made the year before) is a pain in the ass and sometimes a big financial drain.

It sucks. Which is why I have a tax guy who can just handle stuff for me. He's also expensive, but worth it.
Logged

Repped by Mollie Glick of CAA
ASSASSIN'S HEART 2016 HarperTeen
I hang out at Sarah Ahiers Writes
Author Website
koji
Full Member
***

Karma: 5
Offline Offline

Posts: 57


« Reply #14 on: August 14, 2017, 03:22:01 AM »


And unless you're getting $0 advance, you have to worry about taxes.
[/quote]
Actually, we're below the income tax requirements enough that it depends on how much of an advance I get. (Who says being poor is all negative? lol)
[/quote]

Not a tax expert, but as far as I know, advances are considered as freelance income- which you have to claim and start paying once you reach $400 in a year, even if you are below poverty levels (you won't be paying income tax on it, but you will have to pay social security taxes at around 23% or so). So, unless your advance is incredibly small, you will have to worry about it. It sucks.

(Freelance writer living in Bulgaria, stuck paying US taxes on freelance work- looking for UK agents... it's a tax nightmare)
Logged
Pages: [1] 2   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by MySQL Powered by PHP Powered by SMF 1.1.2 | SMF © 2006-2007, Simple Machines LLC Valid XHTML 1.0! Valid CSS!
https://querytracker.net/forum/index.php?topic=22181.msg256696
querytracker.net
crawl=CC-MAIN-2017-43
74238
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:AOWOEGWK6BU3T5L7AUX7WBIMCAJW2HVL
<urn:uuid:b9d6ee6b-4ccd-4a3b-8095-379170d9f05d>
2017-10-23T22:32:02Z
162.144.132.176
application/xhtml+xml
sha1:Q3Z3QJIVBOAJKHI2EJCRTW2M4M2RASWU
<urn:uuid:609c2824-10aa-4cba-8fc7-ff68332ec784>
https://querytracker.net/forum/index.php?topic=22181.msg256696
length
response
<urn:uuid:6bef13f7-7427-42e3-9b5e-016940a81132>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-225-179-112.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-43
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for October 2017
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf