If this is your first dealing with the agent, you may wish to have the agreement cover only the one particular manuscript as opposed to signing an agreement giving the agent the exclusive rights to represent all of your writing. After the agent and you work together for some time, it may then be acceptable to sign some sort of exclusive deal covering more than one of your works at a time. Indeed, some agency agreements reach so far as to cover representation for works already in existence at the time the contract is signed. In other words, you may be giving away representation rights to past works. Additionally, depending upon the reach of the agency, it may or may not be the appropriate agency to represent subsidiary rights in your work such as for movies, periodicals etc.
Many agents specialize in books, while others deal in movies, television and so on.
If you give the first agent exclusive rights for all media, then it may actually turn out that the agent has the right to find sub-agents to do the actual other representation outside of the book agent's area of expertise. And you may end up paying a higher overall commission in this arrangement than if you had separate agency representation for each of the separate areas such as books, movies and so on. You should ask for the right to be consulted with regard to that sub agency in the event you grant these rights away. Ideally, you should limit the representation to those areas in which the agency specializes. Term of the Agreement.