On the book to publishing side of things, there is little distinction between a literary agent and a literary manager. They both do the same job: they find a great manuscript or a great writer, develop the idea to a greater or lesser extent, and then selling the work to a publisher and negotiating a contract on the author’s behalf.
When it comes to ancillary business, their roles are more distinct. A literary agent may sell books to publishers in New York but is less likely to deal in film rights. In that case, having a manager as well can be very useful not only in negotiating the deal itself but also in figuring out which producers to approach.
Lawyers, on the other hand, won’t have the kinds of industry contacts that will help you sell your book, but even so, I’m always in favor of having lawyers involved when drawing up contracts. Especially for any author who gets involved with a film or television studio, there are many ways the contract can trip you up. Not because of anything nefarious, but because these are very complex and specific documents, unlike a lot of publishing agreements, which have become fairly standard over the years. So if you are an author with a literary agent and a film deal comes across your desk, paying a 5 percent commission to a lawyer to manage that deal is absolutely worth it and should be something your agent recommends. If the agent is getting a 15 percent commission, I believe he or she should feel quite comfortable saying, “I’ll take a 10 percent commission instead. Let the lawyer do the film deal for 5 percent.” That’s the way we have operated in the past, and many other literary agents do the same thing.