Industry & Advocacy News
June 20, 2018
We are reaching out to members who are clients of the literary agency Donadio & Olson. As most of you have read in the news, the firm’s bookkeeper has apparently admitted to embezzling $3.4 million from the agency, including amounts owed to authors.
If Donadio & Olson is your agent, please contact us at staff@authorsguild.org so that we can assist you and coordinate efforts with other affected authors. A lawyer for one of our members is interested in putting together a class action lawsuit to conduct an accounting and recover amounts owed authors. Please let us know if you or someone you know might be interested in joining.
Also, we suggest that you protect yourself against future payments being held up in the event of ensuing litigation or bankruptcy. We understand that the agency does not normally employ agency representation agreements, but relies on agency clauses contained in their clients’ contracts. If that is true in your case, you should consider reaching out to your agent and publisher and request an amendment or waiver of that clause, so that future payments come directly to you, minus the agent’s commission.
Last, to all members, this is an important reminder to have a proper agreement with your agent that provides for protections in the event of a crisis such as this.
