zilla

🫖 TEA TIME 🫖 I’ve stayed silent about this long enough. It’s time to tell you all why I’ve been offline for nearly a month. 🚨Warning🚨This post is long. But if you’re a querying author, have an offer of representation on the table, or have recently signed with an agent, you’ll want to stick around for it. The things I’m about to share will shock and infuriate you; they may even make you think twice about pursuing the trad route altogether. At the very least, they’ll encourage you to have a lawyer carefully review any contracts you plan to sign prior to entering into a potentially predatory agreement. Some people have warned me against making this post. That doing so might label me “difficult to work with” and negatively impact my career. My answer to that? So be it. I never wanted to go the traditional route anyway, and if speaking up to alert my fellow authors of where the bad actors lie is somehow being “difficult” and makes people not want to work with me, then I’ll consider myself lucky to be on the blacklist. Too often authors have horror stories about what exists beyond the curtain of trad pub, but due to NDAs and other legally binding contracts, they are forced into silence. They are labeled liars for not producing receipts and being vague. Well, I never signed an NDA. And I’ve kept all my receipts. Here they are for you to see. 👉🏻 One more thing before we move on: Not everyone at CMA is a bad actor. The other agents who work there are lovely people who care deeply about their authors. Unfortunately, they work for someone who does not share this sentiment, something that will become abundantly clear to you shortly. It is for this reason that I have unfortunately had to warn off all previous clients of mine at KTA Editorial against querying this agency. And now, here is my story: On Monday, August 31, I sat down to start working on my latest WIP. No sooner did my butt hit the chair than I received the following email from the owner of Creative Media Agency, Paige Wheeler: “Hi, I wanted to let you know that Vicky Weber’s last day as an agent with Creative Media Agency was today, August 31st. I’m sure she will be in touch if she hasn’t already. In the meantime, if you have any questions about the status of your material, feel free to reach out. I can be contacted at this email or by phone below. Thanks, Paige” This message shocked me for several reasons. First, there was an alarming lack of detail regarding how this would ultimately impact my work/career and relationship with CMA moving forward. But more than that, I had serious concerns about Vicky’s well-being. As anyone who’s worked with Vicky can attest, she is always communicative and transparent, and having just spoken with her over the weekend preceding this announcement, she made no indication that she had plans to depart CMA. My first thought upon reading the notice was that something very serious must have happened. So, I reached out to her independently to confirm that she was leaving the agency and to check if she was okay. Her response shocked me even more than Paige’s initial email: “Me: Hey Vicky! I just got an email from Paige saying you’re no longer at CMA? Is everything okay??” Vicky: I am sending an email but I was not aware I’m leaving…” I didn’t have “Act as CMA’s HR Department” on my Monday Night Bingo card that evening, but that’s exactly where I found myself. It was extremely uncomfortable for me, and I became very wary of Paige given the lack of professionalism she showed not only to her own employee but to the authors under Vicky’s care. I started to wonder about the state of the manuscript I had out on submission and what this would mean for the audiobook deal I’d recently signed. Was my manuscript still under consideration by the publishers it’d been sent to? Would my audiobook deal now be canceled? Was I even an agented author anymore? I had no idea. When I asked for clarification from Paige, I received vague reassurances about my book on submission and the audiobook deal, but no confirmation as to whether I would still be an author represented by an agent at CMA. I sent an email asking all of these questions, and this was the response: “Hi! No worries. The audio deal is still fine. We will have that covered and will forward all executed agreements, monies, royalties etc to you. I’m sure that Vicky will reach out to you directly, but any information that comes in about your submission, we will share with you. I’m happy to jump on a call if needed, sometime tomorrow or later this week. Warmly, Paige” Despite her offer to “jump on a call,” I was hesitant to do so. Something in my gut told me that I needed to keep all communication in writing moving forward so I could easily document it and refer back to it in the future. As I waited to hear more about what this would mean, I started to review my contract with CMA to see what my options might be moving forward in terms of terminating my agreement and attempting to follow Vicky wherever she ended up. I no longer felt comfortable being involved with the agency, but after taking a closer look at my contract, I found that my options were even more limited than I thought. This is the clause that almost ruined everything: “Termination. Either party may terminate this Agreement upon thirty (30) days’ written notice. Provided however, no termination by Client of this Agreement will affect or alter CMA’s entitlement to its Fees or Client’s obligation to compensate CMA. While Client may elect to terminate this Agreement, in consideration of CMA’s services and efforts on Client’s behalf prior to termination, CMA will remain irrevocably entitled to all future Fees from all sales, licenses, or other dispositions of Rights and/or any exploitation of the Work, whether occurring before or after such termination and whether procured by CMA, Client, or a third party. CMA will remain entitled to its Fee for all sold and unsold subsidiary rights, and will stand ready, willing, and able to handle or administer all such agreements if and as requested by Client. If at any time Client elects to ‘self-publish’ the Work, CMA will nevertheless be entitled to receive the Fees specified above in consideration for CMA’s services rendered (e.g., reading, editorial advice, feedback, etc.) unless otherwise mutually agreed upon.” That last part was something I had added into the contract prior to signing since I had written confirmation from Vicky that, should I choose to self-publish the book we brought on submission, the agency wouldn’t then claim 15% of the royalties for it down the road. It’s still unclear to me whether that addendum was sufficient enough to protect me, but one thing is for certain: None of the above is considered standard practice. In fact, all of the attorneys I spoke to called it the most one-sided and predatory contract they’d ever seen. Many of them questioned why I would sign such a thing in the first place. Honestly, I felt foolish, but I wasn’t the only one who’d signed it. Over 30 other authors had also entered into the agreement, and some of theirs were worded in far worse, more binding ways than mine. Thankfully for all of us, Vicky is an actual warrior. She fought tooth and nail on our behalf so we could get released with no strings attached, paying out of her own pocket for a great attorney who really knew her stuff. Currently, almost all affected authors have been released and are able to move on, but there are still a few being left on read, deliberately having their concerns ignored. I’m hopeful they will get out soon. While this story had a happy ending for us, the thought keeps nagging at me: What if things had been different? What if Vicky didn’t hire an attorney? What if the original contract held? What if, what if, what if… The terrifying truth is that all those “what ifs” are justified, and it won’t always be the case that an author has an agent who is willing or able to go to bat for them like mine did. Sometimes agents get fired or fall ill or choose to leave agenting altogether, and when that happens, it will be entirely your responsibility to negotiate your exit. So, how do you do that? First, know your options. If you’re not a member of the Authors Guild, submit your application to join as soon as you’re able. Through your dues, you earn access to legal services, including contract reviews and dispute intervention. If you can’t afford to become a member, you can still file a formal complaint by emailing them at staff(at)authorsguild(dot)org. Make sure you include all screen shots of communications and supporting documents with your complaint. If your case is particularly egregious like mine was, you may want to get in touch with the AALA. You do not need to be a member to submit a formal complaint. They have a strict ethical code that agents and agencies are obligated to uphold as members. Violations of those Canons of Ethics are grounds for investigation (and possible revocation of AALA membership status) and can be a powerful negotiation tool should you need it. I certainly did. Another place where you can submit a claim is Writer Beware. There is no membership requirement to do so. Perhaps the most important thing you should do (and what I certainly should have done from the beginning) is to have a legal professional who specializes in IP and/or entertainment law review your contract carefully prior to signing. While I had several author friends review my agreement with CMA before signing and reviewed it countless times myself, this wasn’t enough. I still entered into a bad agreement, stupidly believing that everything would be fine. Too often, authors get worn out by rejection fatigue. They become so disillusioned by the querying process that any hope of getting out of the so-called “trenches” is one they refuse to let go, even if all the alarms are screaming that something isn’t right. And even as someone who had no intention of querying, I still allowed myself to turn a blind eye to the warning signs so I could live the ultimate author dream of getting my book published. Don’t be like me. Hire a lawyer to get your contract reviewed, and if you can’t afford one, go through the Authors Guild to have it done there. Push back when things don’t seem right, and have the sense to walk away when the red flags appear. Because one day, when everything seems like it’s going just right, it all could change in the blink of an eye. And if that day comes, you’ll wish you’d done more to preserve the thing you spent weeks, months, maybe even years creating. I know I did.