Reader Question: What’s the difference between an agent and a manager?

Reader question via Twitter from @ChristieTaylor:

Quick question. What’s the difference between literary manager and agent?

Both act as representatives for writers, but there are some subtle distinctions.

* Agents earn 10% of income derived from all work of their clients. In California, as I understand it, this figure is set by state regulations over agents through the offices of the State Labor Commissioner. At this time, managers are not regulated, so their fees can vary. The typical percentage for a manager is 10–15%.

* One of the big advantages a manager has is they can be a producer on movie projects whereas — again as I understand it — agents can not. For example, Mason Novick is a manager (MXN) whose clients include screenwriter Diablo Cody, who as the story goes he discovered via her blog. Novick was a producer on Cody’s scripted projects Juno and Jennifer’s Body.

* While each agent and agency, manager and management company is different, generally speaking an agent will handle more of the direct interactions with studios, both with creative execs and business affairs. They are also more involved in packaging projects. Managers tend to be more heavily involved with the writer in terms of script development. Some managers work with private equity funds to develop and produce movies, so they can lay you in for projects on that front. 

Typically a writer communicates more frequently with their manager, although you can expect to have at least one sit-down per year with both your agents and managers.

Of course, the fees for all this can start to add up:

Manager: 10–15%
Agent: 10%
Lawyer: 5%
WGA: 1.8%

That’s nearly one-third of your income lopped off the top before you see one dime. Ideally, however, your agent and manager are on top of their game, getting you good meetings, putting you up for OWA’s (open writing assignments), and in general being your strong advocate so that you keep lining up writing gigs.

Of course, the biggest key is still you and your writing. Your reps won’t be able to do you much good if what you’re turning out in the way of assignments or original scripts does not hit the mark of what the studios are looking for. That’s why it’s critical to find your own unique creative voice, then learn how to write professional quality scripts.

For more information, go here for my Q&A with manager Dan Halsted.

UPDATE: I received an email from Wes. An excerpt:

As far as I know there is only one reputable shop that charges more than 10%, and they will adjust the percentage down to 10 (from 15) if you add an agent to your team. I think it would also be useful to point out that any reputable place will waive their commission if they decide to attach themselves as producers (taking both a commission and a producing fee is known as “double-dipping” and is totally unjustifiable).

I went into both points in comments, but thought that info should be here in the OP. Curious those of you who have managers: what percentage commission do they charge you?

UPDATE #2: More from Wes who recently checked out several different managers before singing with someone:

Industry standard among the top firms is 10… One legitimate exception are manager who charge 15% until you get an agent, which seems fair since your representation costs are lower than they would be with a full team… If you said that 10 is the norm but that a beginning writer without an agent should feel comfortable signing for 15, I certainly wouldn’t argue.

Thanks, Wes, for your input. Again if any other writers wish to chime in or offer further clarifications per their own experience, please do.

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