The AALA Makes Significant Updates to its Canon of Ethics

For the second time in four years, the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA) has updated its Canon of Ethics. The last time, in 2022, the major changes related to packaging and producer fees for clients’ TV and film deals (with members prohibited from participating), and to the growing practice of agents doubling as paid editors. Where the old Canon included a blanket prohibition on paid editing, the update created guidelines designed to allow the practice but head off the more common abuses. Member agents were prohibited from making editing a condition of representation, and required to offer paid editing services only to writers who approached them for that specific purpose (i.e., no bait-and-switch conversion of prospective represntation clients to editing clients). And if they subsequently offered the editing client representation, they had to reimburse all editing fees. The current update is more sweeping. Most of the revisions are focused on the rapidly-growing trend of…