The movie, Jerry Maguire, introduced the world to the world of agents. The stressful, busy, overworked, lives and world of agents...

Definitions

A talent agent is a person who finds jobs for actors, musicians, models, and other people in various entertainment businesses. In North America, the film industry uses the term talent agent to refer to the agent that works for the actor who gets the actor work. There are two types of talent agents: Background agent and Principal agent. Click here for aTalent Agent Job Profile

A literary agent represents writers and their written works to publishers and film producers and assists in the sale and deal negotiation of the same. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwriters and major non-fiction writers. They usually earn their living by taking a part of a writer's earnings, traditionally ten to twenty percent.

Authors often turn to agents for several reasons. First, many large publishing houses do not accept unagented submissions. As larger houses typically pay the largest advances and have the greatest promotional muscle behind a work, they're typically much sought after. As agents accept only a tiny percentage of authors who query them (typically well less than one percent), they act as a filter, removing low-quality material from the potential submissions pool. Second, an agent can help in selling the work.

In general, agents will have around a dozen clients whose works they're trying to sell at a given time. An agent with a very successful client may stop taking on new work in order to focus exclusively on that client. Expenses are incurred by the agent in the process of selling the work (photocopying, mailing, any necessary trips or fees, etc), and these are billed to the client. The expenses, however, are not charged until after the sale, and are waived if the agent cannot sell the work.[citationneeded] The insistence on any payment before sales, be it a reading fee or general expenses, is often a sign of a scam.

How Do I start?

Most agents and executives got their start by working their way all the way up. Trying to get a job in they type of agency or company you eventally want to work for seems to be the best starting place.

Many people start the climb up agency ranks in the mailroom, though others are more fortunate to penetrate the scene as an agent's second assistant. After an individually determined period of assistantship, the climb will often continue to first assistant status, and on to junior agent. Agency climbers can hurdle the mainstream route by discovering an important client or developing pre-established contacts.

How Did They Do It?

Scan the bios of the major players in Hollywood and you'll see there are thousands of ways to get to the same destination. Look over the bio snippets below and see if you know (or can guess) who the executive or agent is:

Guess Who

• After three years as an U.S. Army Officer, he started his career with General Electric in 1980 in the Financial Management Program in Lynchburg, Virginia, and joined the Corporate Audit Staff in 1982. In 1988, he transferred to GE Plastics in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he held several financial and product management assignments. He moved to Holland in 1990, where he was managing director of Polymerland-Europe, a plastics distribution company. In March 1993, he returned to Fairfield as Manager, Corporate Investor Communications. In May 1995, he was appointed Vice President, Corporate Audit Staff. Today he...

• She began her career as an agent trainee at ICM. Today she...

• After beginning his filmmaking career at the age of 15 with a training film for employees of his father’s supermarket, Shaye found early success as a young filmmaker. He took First Prize at the prestigious Society of Cinematologists' Rosenthal Competition, where he and Martin Scorsese shared the Best Motion Picture by an American Director Under the Age of 25 honor. Today he...

• He received Master of Business Administration (awarded with distinction) from Harvard Business School and spent two years in brand management with Procter & Gamble. Prior to working at Procter & Gamble, he served nearly five years in the U.S. Air Force, achieving the rank of Captain. Today he...

• Prior to joining Touchstone Television, she was an assistant at CAA in the literary and talent department, and then an assistant to film director, Sydney Pollack at Paramount Pictures. Today she...

Read more Executives and Agents Bios on the linked pages. Follow in their footstep and learn from their mistakes.

ABC Executives

Disney Executives

HBO Executives

NBC Universal Executives

New Line Executives

Touchstone Executives

Warner Bros Executives

Training

The Act One Executive Program is a great place to go for training if you are pursuing a career as an agent or executive. Click here for more info on the Act one Exec Program.

ICM offers a competitive and intensive agent training program. See the following from their website:

What to Expect as an ICM Trainee
As a trainee in the ICM Trainee Program, you will have enlisted in the boot camp of the agent-training world. While the program emphasizes the development of future agents, it is also a wonderful opportunity to gain entry-level experience for a career in entertainment.

You will be required to work, on average, 12 hours a day and maybe some weekends. Your responsibilities can range from simple clerical tasks (photocopying, filing, typing) to managing heavy phones and rolling calls, assisting with special projects, and simply doing whatever it takes to assist the Agency. You can expect to spend five to seven months in the mail room learning who is who and who does what and when needed, you will be asked to cover assistant desks wherever needed. During this five to seven month period in the mailroom, you will also receive training in various departments such as Music/Concerts, Voice-Over, Accounting, Business Affairs, Motion Picture Production, and the Story Department. After that time, every attempt will be made to place you on an open desk for a one-year assignment. Then you would interview for your second desk where you would remain for one year. Upon completion of your second year, the head of the department you are in will evaluate you for the departmental assistant position. If you are hired into that job, you will remain in that position for a period of six to eighteen months. After that you will be evaluated for promotion to agent status. If, and how quickly this happens, depends in large part to how enthusiastic you are, your performance within the department, and the networking you do while in the program.

Although not always glamorous, acceptance in the ICM Trainee Program is a coveted and desirable opportunity to learn about the entertainment business and the people who work within it. Most importantly, it is the first step in the pursuit of a career in the world of talent representation!

More info on the ICM Trainee Program at the ICM website: www.icmtalent.com

The following is a List of Hollywood agencies as ranked by size by the LA Business Journal representing primarily above-the-line talent:

• Creative Artists Agency (CAA)
• William Morris Agency (WMA)
• International Creative Management (ICM)
• United Talent Agency (UTA)
• Paradigm
• Endeavor
• The Gersh Agency
• Innovative Artists Agency
• Agency for Performing Arts (APA)

There are hundreds of talent agencies in Los Angeles, New York, and various other cities around the USA. While the major agencies are well known, there are also mid-sized and small talent agencies which procure employment for many of the actors and models you see on television, film, commercial and print media.

For complete, up to date listings of mid-sized and smaller talent agencies, such as Acme Talent & Literary, featured on the E! Entertainment Television program "Fight For Fame," go to http://www.backstage.com/backstage/rossreports/index.jsp.

Resources

Websites:

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