What’s the difference between a literary lawyer, a literary attorney, or a literary agent who might be one of the Best Literary Agents working at one of the Top Literary Agencies? Should authors ever hire a literary attorney or literary lawyer? And, if so, what are some of the more common reasons an author might hire a literary lawyer or literary attorney?
Most authors published with major publishing houses like Random House have literary agents, but they don’t usually have literary lawyers or literary attorneys, and they don’t usually have entertainment lawyers or entertainment attorneys.
Literary agents are primarily responsible for developing and managing the careers of writers. Click here (no cost) to see my detailed Guide to Literary Agents along with my information about how to Get a Literary Agent and Finding a Literary Agent. In short, literary agents advise their clients on a wide range of topics including, at times, contracts and other legal topics. However, most literary agents aren’t lawyers or attorneys. Therefore, if an author needs “legal advice,” he or she may need to pay for the services of a literary lawyer or literary attorney to augment the efforts and abilities of his or her literary agent.
Literary lawyers or literary attorneys serve authors in a different capacity than literary agents, a strictly legal one. In other words, literary lawyers or literary attorneys don’t advise their clients about their writing, nor do they try to get them book deals. They simply give advice about legal matters and, in some cases, represent their authors’ interests in arbitration, court cases, or other types of situations and proceedings. You’ll see examples of some scenarios below. There’s also not much difference between the words “lawyer” and “attorney.” The definitions vary a bit by location, but they overlap a lot. Basically, all attorneys are lawyers but not all lawyers are attorneys. If you want to know more about that topic, just Google “The difference between lawyers and attorneys.”
Entertainment lawyers or entertainment attorneys serve authors and other types of talent such as actors and actresses in a similar capacity to literary lawyers and literary attorneys. The main difference is they’re not focused solely on writers. And, in some cases, entertainment lawyers or entertainment attorneys pitch projects to publishing companies, movie studios, etc. However, if you’re an author seeking a book deal with a major publisher, a literary agent who’s solely focused on developing and managing the careers of writers is typically more likely to do a thorough job in this regard.