Writing.Com General Discussion

Generally, if you get an agent, you aren't bound in anyway until you actually manage to sell one of your books. Once that's done, the deal you've made with the agent is binding as long as the contract he/she helped negotiate still is in play.

So if you sign with an agent and they get a publisher to buy your and help negotiate your contract, then they get a cut (I think 15% is still the norm) until the book goes out of print and the deal with the publisher is no longer binding. That's not to say you can't split with your agent if you're not right for each other, but that one deal still exists (the same would of course be the case if they negotiated more contracts for you).