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@pwalker8. In the case of authors seeking to be published I suspect that reason was to get publishers to at least take a look at their manuscripts, since such publishers rarely accepted direct submissions of such manuscripts. And by the way, the most common percentage I have heard mentioned in conjuction with literary agents is 15%. And treating agents and lawyers as being interchangeable when it comes to advising on contracts is quite simply wrong. The vast majority of agents are simply not qualified to give such advice. And they are especially ill-suited to do so given that their business relies for its existence on the goodwill of publishers and their people. If it comes to a choice I would suggest that it would be hugely tempting for an agent to throw a writer under the bus on contract terms rather than lose the confidence of publishers.
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