Q: Have you ever had to fire/part ways, with an agent or a manager, and if so, how'd you go about it?
A: Yes, and I went about it politely but firmly.
Firing representation isn’t a pleasant thing. For starters, writers generally aren’t good at managing employees because, generally, we don’t have any.
Our representives are, in fact, our employees, but they do an excellent job of making us feel like we’re the ones who ought to be grateful to be working with them.
Baloney.
When it’s time to fire an agent, here’s my recommendation. They’ll never be happy if you terminate them in this way, but they won’t exactly be able to trash you either.
First, think long and hard about the specifics of your dissatisfaction.
Second, request a lunch meeting with your rep, and explain why you feel dissatisfied. Lay out the problems as you perceive them, and ask for solutions. This is not the “you’re fired” meeting. This meeting is exactly what it seems—a warning shot across the bow.
It’s extremely important to do this. Sometimes agents need a reality check in order to change their course of service to their client. Given that writers can be sort of passive-aggressive about this stuff, it’s not fair to just let all of your gripes explode out in a sudden firing.
This meeting should be businesslike, and it should end optimistically.
Now you wait.
If three to six months pass and you are still dissatisifed, it’s time to drop the axe.
I recommend doing it on the phone. I don’t say this because it’s the cowardly move. It’s not. I say this because agents are extremely well-trained in the art of not letting clients fire them. Don’t kid yourselves…the stories of meetings that began with clients saying “you’re fired” and ended with “okay, you’re still my agent” are legend at the big firms, and they have many ways of breaking you.
Early on in my career, my manager (who is still my manager) left the firm he was with to go to another management company. I chose to follow him. Before I could leave, one of the owners of the firm asked to talk to me about it in person.
I agreed. Seemed fair.
He started off by saying, “Look, your guy brought you into my firm, and so I understand why you want to leave with him. I would love for you to stay. I’m not going to pressure you or badmouth your guy or badmouth the company he’s going to, and I would certainly never threaten you in any way. I just want to talk.”
He then proceeded to do every single thing he said he wouldn’t.
Rather uncomfortable.
You owe the rep that you’re firing some courtesy, but you don’t have to paint a target on yourself either. Call the rep up and say simply and cleanly, “I’m leaving the agency.”
The headline is out of the way. By leading with this, you do one of two things:
- Establish the firing as a fait accomplis.
- Depersonalize the firing.
There will be some shocked silence that you ought to fill dispassionately. Refer back to your prior meeting, explain that your grievances weren’t particularly well-addressed, and state that you’ve decided to make a change. Explain that your decision is final (they will find this insulting and will attempt to make you feel like you owe them a chance to win you back, but that’s just a Jedi mind trick), thank them for the excellent work they’ve done for you in the past, and then get off the phone as fast as you can.
In the days to come, various guilt-trips and insinuations will probably filter back to you. Ignore them. It’s all smoke and mirrors. An executive might even call you to say, “Are you nuts?”, and you’ll ignore that too. An executive who knows you well enough to call doesn’t really care who your agent is. They’ve already judged your writing for themselves.
I want to end by saying that I know I sometimes come off as a bit of a hard-ass against reps, when, in fact, I don’t think I am. Many of them are very smart and very effective at their job.
What concerns me is that there is often an imbalance of psychological power between writers and their agents, and that’s because agents are professional manipulators and writers aren’t.
We have more power than we’ve been led to believe. Don’t be afraid to use it.
It’s your career.
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Screenwriter Craig Mazin shows you how it's done.I recommend doing it on the phone. I don’t say this because it’s the cowardly move. It’s not. I say this because agents are extremely well-trained in the art of not letting clients Read More
This is a great post, and a great subject.
Craig, question—what’s the etiquette for talking to other reps behind your current reps’ back? You don’t recommend leaving your current rep without having a new one lined up, correct?
Do you start looking for a new rep right after you do your warning shot lunch? Or do you wait the three to six months, THEN start looking or letting it be known you’re about to leave?
How often does it happen that you start looking around, and it gets back to your current rep, and s/he fires you for going behind his back?
Ben LA
My question exactly - everyone tells me to have someone else lined up first, before even considering firing and/or leaving the current rep …
What’s your take?
And, to throw even more fuel into the flames…
What are your thought on cleaning house? If you’re displeased with both your agent(s) and your manager?
It’s always good to have someone lined up if you’re heading out the door. If you have a manager, the manager could line up a new agent, and vice-versa.
If you want to clean house, it’s best to then use your attorney to help settle things out and find the new rep.
Excellent advice, Craig.
Craig, Great post. I’ve been there and you’re right on every front.
I even once had the “warning shot” lunch turned around on me to where, at the end, I was apologizing.
If only they were as good at repping you as they are at keeping you.
What about the deals set-up by the fired agent/manager that are still outstanding? Are we supposed to make a clean break and shut them out of the end deal completely?
Craig.
Who did the drawing that accompanies this article? It looks like it’s from one of my favorite web comics, toothpaste for dinner.
-3
Our representives are, in fact, our employees.
I think this is spot on. This is generally a problem that we all have. Even to the level of production companies. Its your script, your treatment, your characters, your story - yet you can still get fired!!!
Tim Clague PROJECTOR FILMS My Blog
craig
would it be possible to arrange a lunch with you? i’m a bit disappointed and have a few issues i’d like to discuss.
Alan:
I’d really like to do it face to face. :)
Ben:
You can poke around on other agents, but I suggest you do so VERY CAREFULLY. It’s not like cheating. It is cheating.
Gary:
The rule of thumb is that if you got the job under their watch, they commission it. The new agents will understand this too.
I’d like to approach it using language they can understand. “I love your work. Your ideas are great. It’s just that I’m looking to go in another direction.”
CRAIG —
Bloggee to Blogger; Something I’ve noticed about this blog, both this page and the BBS. VERY often I wind up just “lurking” (i.e. reading but not posting). But the reason for that ISN’T because I wasn’t interested. The reason is that, by far, most of the articles are, not only interesting and useful, but so well written and thought out that I’m left with little or nothing to ask or add. That’s pretty dammed unusual for any blog in my experience, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find that quite a few people lurk w/o posting for that reason. Reason I bring it up is, it’d be easy to conclude that when an article only garners half a dozen to a dozen responses that only a half a dozen to a dozen people read it or found it useful. NOT the case. Keep up the good work. This is one hell of an informative blog, no S_.
Mike:
Thanks. :) I always assumed there was something positive behind the stunned silence….
So, in the interests of edification, how about an article or post on how to find a new agent if, as a writer, you have a great script but a non-effective or lackadasical agent (whom will be fired) and no manager or lawyer and thus unsure as to how to find new representation?
And thanks, as others have said, for your continued work on this site.
Good post indeed! Thank you again!
BTW, we say “fait accompli” without “s”, because it is singular and not plural in this expression…
Compare :
Un fait accompli
Des faits accomplis
I never understood why it’s so hard to get an agent until I saw how hard mine works for me. Launching a new writer is a huge daily investment that can only mean how much she believes in me. She didn’t even get mad when I turned her onto my blog, where I trash her quite liberally just fors sport. I did prepare her in advance by saying Josh Friedman’s blog only refers to his agent as the Dumb Fucking Lesbian. Mine is one Smart Fucking Hetero. If I ever have to fire her it will be because I’m giving it all up to become a gun-crazed postal worker in Umatilla.
Craig, GREAT article. THANKS!
Your steps for firing an agent are exactly the same ones I went through to fire my last therapist. She wanted one last “in person” meeting to let me know where she thought I was going awry in my personal growth, and I said no, that I was done growing for awhile. Then she proceded to write a mean, guilt-inducing email which alternately made me cry, and laugh.
You touch on some really important writer issues. For one thing, I often wonder whether the horrible treatment writers often receive at the hands of studio execs, producers, and yes our own employees (namely our agents), is that we do have a lot of power. We don’t act like it. We don’t believe it. But our power is awesome and terrifying. The industry has nothing without our stories. And the truth is not everyone can write them. Certainly, no one can write exactly the one you just wrote—that is unique to you. And having created something so unique, it is invaluable. When it has the power to reach the masses, it’s worth billions (yay, J.K. Rowling). No director can even leave his house for work in the morning without our scripts. No ticket can be sold. Dare I say it: many can direct our masterpieces. Many can act in it. Surely, some better than others. Without that script they’re doomed. Writers can paralyze or energize the entire industry. Maybe the powers that be are wise to make us believe we’re powerless. women were 50% of the population and didn’t have the vote until very recently in history. Blacks in South Africa make up 95% of the population, but were kept powerless by 5% of the population. There is good reason to keep powerful forces down: they can overwhelm you. And one of these days, we writers just might.
Craig - I’m an actress — and I found this article incredibly helpful for ANYone in the situation of needing to fire one’s agent. And…I particularly liked the two steps; first the “warning” meeting, then later the firing. It is very ironic, because I found your wonderful site just tonight — and tomorrow I have the first step meeting with my agent. It was extremely encouraging to read your suggestion to do exactly what I had planned to do. I was feeling so awkward and not in the place power. Thanks to your post, I now feel more secure, confident and comfortable heading to my agent’s office tomorrow. Thanks for the wonderful post and supportive information. Oh…and forgive my choppy writing — that’s not MY area of expertise you know (heh-heh).