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Parting Ways with Your Agent By Craig Mazin
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 representatives 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 dissatisfied, 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:
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 (he will find this insulting and will attempt to make you feel like you owe him a chance to win you back, but that's just a Jedi mind trick), thank him for the excellent work he's 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. He's already judged your writing for himself. 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.
Craig Mazin's article previously appeared in The Artful Writer. The Artful Writer was founded in 2005 to advance the discussion of issues relevant to professional television and theatrical screenwriters. Craig Mazin is the co-writer of the hit comedy Scary Movie 3. He began his screenwriting career with the 1997 Disney comedy Rocketman. Since then, he has written in a variety of film genres, including romantic comedy, spoof, drama, and horror, including screen adaptations of Philip K. Dick's "The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford" and the classic Broadway play "Harvey," both for Miramax Films. Upcoming feature projects include Opus, an animated film collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Berkeley Breathed, and of course, Scary Movie 4 with director David Zucker. Craig also produced and directed the cult independent film The Specials. Craig lives with his wife and two children in a small town north of Los Angeles.
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