Notes: For the New Face
Agency Structures
Mother agencies, booking agencies, and how the commission splits.
In short: How model agencies are structured: mother agencies, booking agencies and how commission is split, explained plainly by a London photographer.
Mother agencies
Having more than one agency involved isn't unusual, and it isn't a red flag on its own, once you understand how the structure works. A mother agency discovers and develops new talent, then places them with booking agencies in other cities or countries, London, Paris, New York, Tokyo, and manages your career across all of them.
Within the UK specifically, this often happens regionally too, a mother agency based outside London, in Birmingham or Glasgow for example, develops a model's portfolio and connections before placing them with a bigger London agency once they're ready for that market.
Booking agencies
A booking agency is the local agency securing client bookings within a specific city or territory. This is the agency doing the day-to-day work, submitting you for castings and negotiating individual jobs. Many models sign directly with a booking agency in their home territory without a mother agency involved at all.
How the commission actually splits
Standard agency commission generally runs 10% to 20%, most sit around 15-20%. Where a mother agency is also involved, they don't simply add another 10% on top, they typically take a share of the booking agency's own commission, often a straightforward 50/50 split of that commission, not an extra fee charged separately.
For example, on a £1,000 booking with 20% commission, the booking agency takes £200. If a mother agency is involved, that £200 might be split evenly, £100 to each agency, rather than the model losing an additional £100 on top of the original 20%.
The one principle that holds across every legitimate structure: nobody gets paid until the model does. An agency or mother agency earning money before you book a single job is the actual warning sign, not the existence of a second agency in the chain.
Contract types and length
- Exclusive: only one agency represents you within a given territory
- Non-exclusive: more than one agency can book you in the same territory
- Worldwide exclusive: a single agency network represents you globally, coordinating with local booking agencies
A standard booking agency contract typically runs one to three years. Mother agency agreements can run longer, since they're built around developing a career rather than a single market's work, so it's worth reading the term length as carefully as the commission structure before signing anything.
Knowing exactly which type of contract you're signing matters more than the label alone, ask directly what it means for your ability to work with anyone else before you sign anything.
A Few Questions