I am just about to sign a contract with a top-tier lit' agency. they seem excited. It is exciting! BUT I dont know if what from what regrading the legalities of it all. They seem to want ALL things related to the works? is that standard for a newbie author?
I'm not sure what it is that they're asking for -- the right to represent your work in all media? Or something else? But I can certainly point you in the right direction: http://www.societyofauthors.net/. Join the Society of Authors. They will happily advise about things like this; that's what they do. (Here's their FAQs.) Last year, they sorted out a UK publisher I'd had trouble with, very impressively.
I don't think there's anything quite the same outside of the UK, but as you're british, they're the place you should go.
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I'm at Penguincon. Today I needed to send a fax from my computer -- idly googled, and realised I could do it as e-mail, using the header information at http://www.tpc.int/faxbyemail.html. And I did. And it worked. So I thought I'd pass the information along.
And the Fiddler's Green convention site has just gone live: http://www.fiddlersgreencon.org/ for details. It's a limited membership convention: only 500 people. They've got me as a guest. Over the next couple of months they should announce everyone else who will be coming, as each person confirms. It should be a very impressive bunch. And all profits will go to the CBLDF.
(Which reminds me: the Penguincon auction was in support of the CBLDF - and I've just stumbled away from it. It lasted for almost four hours, and raised about $4,300. Which is a good evening's work, although added to the 3 hour signing this afternoon, means I'm now braindead.)