What's the difference and which one(s) do I need?
Entourage
When it comes to agents, managers and lawyers, who’s holding the best hand?
Fifteen or 20 years ago, a talented writer needed only a decent typewriter and a good agent to have a career. Today, the writer seems to need a veritable entourage-agent, literary manager, entertainment attorney, publicist, business manager, accountant, personal assistant.
What's next, the image consultant?
Sometimes, a writer must wonder, Do I really need all these people? With agent and lit manager usually each taking a 10 percent commission, the entertainment attorney and business manager another 5 percent a head, that's 30 percent right there. If you have a publicist, accountant, and/or personal assistant, a few more hands are in your pocket. Add in taxes and the writer might be left wondering if he or she will break even.
Perhaps the biggest change to this landscape has been the rise of the literary manager. (Many writers simply refer to this person as my manager to distinguish the role from a business manager, and we'll do the same here.) As recently as 10 years ago, most writers didn't employ managers. But comb the trades reading about various writers' deals, and you'll see far more seem to have managers in addition to the traditional agent.
But what does a manager actually do? The answers vary depending on which writers you ask. For some, the manager serves as a personal development executive or even a career counselor; for others, the manager acts as another level of connection in the business. Oftentimes, the manager serves two or three of these roles.
“Primarily, for me, the manager is very hands-on in development of spec material, which is really what I have him for,” says screenwriter Keith Domingue, who has written feature assignments for Village Roadshow, Dimension Films, and MGM, among others. “I look for someone who will become a development partner. I need that because it allows me to take more creative risks with my spec material.” As a result, Domingue will work through multiple drafts with his manager, something generally not possible with an agent. “From my experience, few agents have the time for that,” he adds.
For those writers who have been through bruising development experiences, voluntarily submitting to this process (and paying for it) might seem somewhat masochistic. The difference, Domingue explains, is that “the manager isn't trying to make it his cop thriller. He's trying to ensure that my idea gets across. There's never any, Wouldn't it be better if they wore clown shoes and fought crime at night? It's all about flushing out what my idea is. That's the difference between an assignment, where you have people trying to impose their vision on the project.”
Writer Doug Eboch, however, experienced the opposite with a previous manager in this capacity. “I felt like she overdeveloped stuff with me,” says Eboch, who has had both a manager and an agent in the past but now employs only an agent. “She kept wanting me to do new drafts and new drafts. I was satisfied with the material, and my agent was satisfied. That was frustrating.”
In contrast, screenwriter Eric Heisserer sees his manager first as his personal career counselor. “A good manager is much more interested in the long-term career and figuring out how to keep you employed for at least 10 years,” says Heisserer, who has a two-picture deal at Warner Bros. “The good manager asks you a lot of questions about where you want to be, what kind of stuff you want to be writing, and kind of has a college-counselor hat on.”
Television drama writer Elizabeth Cosin sees a different need for a manager in hour-long television. “As a TV writer, you generally don't need a manager unless you end up being a showrunner, and then it's often an advantage to add a manager to your entourage,” says Cosin, who has written for 24, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and L.A. Dragnet. “There's a lot more at stake. You're making a lot more money, so there are a lot more deals to be made. When you're hot, you should get as much work as you can, and the manager can help you make inroads into parts of the business you haven't been able to get into. It's always good [to have more] people shopping your wares when you're wanted.” Cosin adds that, when you have a successful show on the air, it's difficult to find the time to focus on the next deal, and that's where the manager can help.
The Strategist
Given the increasingly competitive nature of the entertainment business, with more writers scrabbling for fewer available gigs, managers also help agents cast a wider net. “The manager adds another component of connections we might not necessarily have,” says Dino Carlaftes, a literary agent at Metropolitan Talent Agency. “They might have a good relationship with a particular executive or showrunner, and we bring them in as a second party to make calls and plant seeds in people's minds. In television or features, there are several people one needs to talk to. On a television show, you need to talk to an executive producer, a studio executive, and a network executive. If your manager colleague has a good relationship with one of those three, and you have a great one with two of them, then both the agent and the manager can connect with the whole team.”
Carlaftes notes that the manager can often help talented writers who aren't getting the attention they should from their agent. “Some clients don't get as much attention as the current super-breadwinners in an agency,” he says. “Managers have moved into that niche to help people who are being underserviced because of the pure economy of the business. The agent might spend more time with the breadwinners than the people who, for some reason, may have been cold for a little while.” A good manager, he says, can focus on the latter group to bring them into the former.
The manager also can be helpful in building contacts when a writer is new and untested, particularly in the shrinking world of half-hour television. “The tide has changed in terms of agents signing baby comedy writers,” says April Pesa, who has written for Scrubs and I'm With Her. “Back in 1995, when there were tons of sitcoms on the air, you just needed a couple great specs to get signed by an agency. Those days are gone. You almost can't get an agent anymore without a manager helping you get that agent.”
Agent Carlaftes agrees: “Many times managers are willing to take a risk with completely fresh, virgin writers who agents don't have the time to help. It's one thing to read a brilliant feature spec, because you can go out with it no matter who wrote it. But if someone has a terrific spec for Two and a Half Men with no credits and no connection to the business, most agents will turn that person away simply because it's too hard [to try to start that writer's career]. Managers sometimes will step into that role and start working with undeveloped, non-connected talent earlier because they have the time and they have a smaller client base.”
For the newer feature writer without an agent, the manager can also help make critical agent introductions. Screenwriter Heisserer landed his first agent with the help of his manager. “She said, 'Eric, I'm going to boil this down to three agencies that are important” he explains. “'Those three meetings are the ones I think you should take,' she said. 'You could take five or 500 meetings, but my job as manager is to whittle this list down to the three finalists for you.'” Heisserer's manager then accompanied him to each of the agent meetings before he settled on his final choice.
Writer Brian Horiuchi had a similar experience, landing a manager first who helped him line up the agent. “We went together to numerous meetings with potential representatives,” explains Horiuchi, whose feature credits include America So Beautiful and the forthcoming Oskur Fishman. “We shopped around together to create a team. My manager was a linchpin to help choose the rest of the team.”
The Technician
If a manager can do all these things, what's the point of having an agent? “One of my writers recently put it so perfectly,” says literary manager Julie Bloom at Art/Work Entertainment. “He says, 'Julie is my strategic; my agents are my technical.' I get my clients ready to sell. It's the agent's job to sell.” Bloom has a sense of both sides of the business because, before becoming a manager, she was a lit agent at William Morris.
“Managers get you all dressed up and confident for the ball, while agents make sure there are lots of eligible partners there who will ask you to dance,” says Horiuchi with a laugh, slipping into what he calls “my southern belle mode.”
In contrast, writer Domingue uses more of a business school analysis. “I almost consider it like, your manager is part of your marketing team, and your agent is part of your sales team,” he says. “Because the two are not the same. With marketing, you discuss the overall vision of what it is you're trying to do and to put the plan together. The sales people can help you implement the plan.”
Heisserer sees the primary role of his agent as moving him to the next big career level. “The agents are obviously interested in getting assignments for you,” he says. “But, more than that, agents are looking to take what you've already got set up somewhere and make sure it goes the distance. At the agencies, they have access to directors and actors. They have their ear to the wall at all the studios. Packaging is a dirty word sometimes, but at the same time agents help elevate you from being a sold writer to being a produced writer.” While the manager is more focused on making the writer, Heisserer notes, the agent is more focused on making the movie.
There are also legalities as to what managers can and cannot do that prevent them from eclipsing the agent's role. Unlike agents, which are licensed by the state and also are WGA signatories, managers are largely unregulated but cannot technically procure work nor engage in certain aspects of negotiations.
For those who have been around a while, it seems like today's manager is doing a lot of what literary agents used to do, particularly in spec development and career counseling. That's why some writers, particularly those with veteran agents, question the need for both a manager and an agent.
“My current agent seems to be giving me pretty full service,” says feature writer Eboch. “We talk about long-term career stuff. It's kind of rare these days that agents do that. My agent's been around for a long time, so he's more old-school.”
Screenwriter Marianne Wibberley has much the same opinion. “If you have an agent who is doing what they're supposed to be doing, things like career advice, development, and access to work, then you really don't need a manager,” she says. “Not to put down managers, but if your agent is doing her job, then why do you need a manager? Isn't an agent supposed to do all those things? Our agents sat us down right after they signed us and said, 'This is our trajectory that we see for your career. Here is our 10-year plan.' They were very, very focused on a long-term career plan. It wasn't just, 'Hey write us another spec and we'll sell it for you.'” Wibberley's credits include National Treasure, I Spy, and The 6th Day. Although she and her writing partner husband once had both an agent and a manager, they only employ an agent now.
Half-hour and comedy feature writer Jeff Lowell has a simple litmus test for determining whether an agent and a manager or only one is needed. “My test has always been, 'Are they making me more than they're costing me?'” says Lowell, who has written for Just Shoot Me, Spin City, and The Drew Carey Show and wrote the screenplay for John Tucker Must Die. “I usually have two or three things going at once, and I can always point at them and say, 'If it wasn't for my manager, I wouldn't have this; if it wasn't for my manager, I wouldn't have that.'”
Feature writer Craig Mazin candidly questions whether some writers are overrepresented with both a manager and an agent. “I get the feeling that the existence of managers has allowed writers to indulge their neuroses,” he says. “The formula goes something like this: The more representatives I have, the more likely it is that I will work. You can't have more than one agent because the agents wouldn't allow it, so along comes the manager. The writer thinks, I'll pay another 10 percent out and, great, I should get twice the work. But that calculus is just faulty.” Mazin's credits include Scary Movie 3, Senseless, and Scary Movie 4. He presently has a manager and entertainment attorney but no agent; however, he has had all three in the past.
“Whether we realize it or not, we are the CEOs of our own little companies,” Mazin continues. “We're faced with decisions about how many employees to hire. It's a classic business mistake to overstaff out of insecurity.”
There might be something of a prevailing opinion that, if you're working steadily, you can cut back on your entourage. Manager Bloom, however, wonders if that can lure writers into a false complacency. “There are a lot of writers with agents who are working and don't believe they need a manager,” she says. “But you're only as good as your next job. A manager can help you with that job to make sure that you're turning in your drafts in as great of shape possible. Making sure the executives love you and want to hire you again. The manager is another voice out there for you in a shrinking job market.”
Writers with both a manager and agent can also make the mistake of presuming their handlers will do all the work for them. Regardless of the writer's representation, he or she must continue writing, says Bloom. “Writers should never stop writing. If you're not working for hire, you should be writing. That's your job. If you don't have fresh material for your manager or agent on a regular basis, then that's a problem. It's difficult, once you have a spec out there [for a while]; everyone has read it, and you're not doing anything new. If you're a writer, and you're not consistently working for hire, you should still be consistently writing.”
Enter the Attorney
Notwithstanding they have both an agent and a manager on their team, many writers believe an entertainment attorney is also a necessary player in the entourage. They often don't feel they can rely on attorneys in an agency's business affairs department.
“At an agency, especially in television, they're often getting a package fee,” so they have more at stake than just the writer's commission, says Lowell, who employs a manager, agent, and entertainment attorney. “They want the deal to go smoothly. I've had deals blow apart because of issues my lawyer pointed out that I shouldn't back down on. I don't think an agency that has a package fee on the line wants to see a deal blow apart. I always know my lawyer is being objective and looking out for me. At an agency, with packaging fees, there's just an inherent built-in conflict of interest.”
Television writer Cosin stresses that an entertainment attorney is critical for those who are setting up pilots. “If you have a pilot deal of any kind, you need to have an entertainment lawyer,” she says. “Because when you start to talk about back-end stuff and points and credits, you want to get yourself set up in a way that's as solid as you possibly can. Your agent can't do that. Only an entertainment lawyer can make sure you're protected in that way. I just wouldn't trust an agent to negotiate a complicated deal. Some of them are lawyers, but they're not practicing contract law now. They're practicing being an agent. My agent is a lawyer, but he tells me right out, 'Look, I'm not going to be the one you want to rely on to ensure that your contract is as good for you as it can be.'”
In contrast, fewer writers seem to employ business managers, but those who do often find they save more than the 5 percent fee on all earnings. “The business manager is like an accountant plus,” says writer Horiuchi. “They lease your cars, they set up your corporation, they cut you paychecks, they set up your 401(k), they do your investments, they pay all your bills right down to your magazine subscriptions, and they do your taxes. And if you want them to, they'll even put you on a budget.” Horiuchi adds that the business manager is strictly for financial management and not for building industry relationships or securing work.
Regardless of how many professionals the writer employs on his or her entourage, it's absolutely critical that all of them get along. If you have an agent and manager at loggerheads or an agent and lawyer who can barely tolerate each other, you may be in serious trouble and suddenly find yourself without any representation at all. “It either means the relationship with the talent ends or a gauntlet is thrown down and something is done,” says agent Carlaftes. “But in more cases than not, the relationship with the talent is ended.”
Guild member David Hoag has written screenplays for Disney, Miramax, Goldwyn Films, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., and more. He also is one of the administrators at WriterAction.com, a free website exclusively for WGA members.
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