The best possible problem to have...

I've got two major agencies competing for my book.

It's a freaking dream come true.

But I'm having a really hard time deciding between them. Anyone care to help out? I'll give a stat/bio for each situation.

Agent #1
Got to the project first and started reading it the first day it was sent (via a mutual friend), called me the following day to express interest and say he'd be in touch when he'd finished
The more "powerful" of the two interested
From one of my top 3 agencies
Loves the book. Raves about it.
But does want revisions
Gave me broadstroke notes on the revisions, but won't give me specifics unless he knows I'm working exclusively with the agency, which seems fair. Judging from the broadstrokes they are all things I'm okay with.
Took him two weeks to get back to me, from our first phone call to "we want it"
Two people with personal experience have told me this guy is an amazing agent "the best" (only one of them is a client)
There will be no actual contract until later in the game*
We had great chemistry on the phone, he seems like a great guy
I suspect I'll get a little less personal attention (and speed/urgency perhaps) since he and the agency are so big
I suspect he'll be able to negotiate a better/bigger deal when the time comes.

Agent #2
The requested full had been sitting with the agency for about six weeks when he got in touch
A slightly smaller and newer agent at another big firm
From one of my top 10 agencies
Loves the book, has said multiple times "I am the perfect agent for this"
But also wants revisions
Seems more willing to get into detail about those revisions, regardless of exclusivity (we're having a more detailed talk about that today)
Took him less than a week to go from our first phone call to "I want it"
Wants me to speak with two other clients of his, I guess to help vette him - which is really cool. Haven't spoken with them yet
I don't know if there will be an actual upfront contract or not (I forgot to ask and emailed him separately)*
We had great chemistry on the phone, he seems like a great guy
He's a little smaller and he seems very passionate about my book, so I sense I might get more personal attention, and maybe the revisions could happen faster (on their end)
Since he's a little less powerful/established I'm concerned I might miss the "bigger payday" if such a thing ends up existing

I know, I know, a great problem to have. But I'm really torn. Anyone have any thoughts? They seem so equal to me at this point...I don't know how to choose and have promised to decide by Monday!

*From what I've read and researched, not offering a contract at this stage is not a big deal. There's no money involved at this point, and anyone (agent or author) can easily break the contract if it's not working out - so there's little protection anyway. It seems like the only thing signing a contract does is allow me to shout from the mountaintops "I HAVE AN AGENT!" (which don't get me wrong - I totally want to do) but I'd rather have the best agent around and have to wait until it's on submission to shout that out...if that's all it really affords me.

Thanks Clovia!

Thanks MNgal.

It really helped actually just to type everything up and post it on here. I realized as I was typing that I was leaning one direction for a variety of reasons. That said, I appreciate the comments - and welcome any more insights anyone might have as there are many more hours and flip flop moments before "decision time"!

Thanks!

I've done the research on the "big" agent. He's BIG, his firm is BIG, all very well respected, very well reviewed, great information all around, including two personal recommendations (one from a client, one from an entertainment lawyer).

I've done research on the second agency (also big, though slightly less big than #1). They are well respected with good sales and buzz. The specific agent interested in my work is a little new to that agency (a year and a half-ish) but all the information I've found has been good. I'm going to be speaking to two of Agent #2's current clients soon (tomorrow? Monday?) as a further vetting - but basically there appears to be no red flags or downsides really to either of the agents.

Chaos Titan:

Both have sold to big houses recently in my genre. I can't confirm last twelve months specifically, but the records look good overall and recently. They both work in my genre and in others, because except for the potential sequel to this book, I probably want to switch genres (the other handful of ideas I'm working on are not the same genre as the finished work) so I'm glad for them to have the variety. They also both have powerful houses behind them that they've said can work with me/us for things like the graphic novel I'm working on.

I was kind of hoping the personality of one would just blow the other away, but they're both great. Different, but great.

ACK!

Thanks for all the feedback everyone.

Thanks everyone! It's pretty awesome.

Brutal Mustang I tend to agree, especially in this market

ORION: They both want revisions right away. They both said they think they could sell it now, but that we'd be selling the book short (financially and otherwise) and that it will "do better" if we do the revisions before submitting.

Sage: The broadstroke revisions of agent #1 are all reasonable, but they won't give me more detail unless I work with them exclusively. As I understand it, one reason they do that is because they're going to send it to an ex editor that works for them freelance (and is paid out of the agent percentage) and so I don't think they've even really decided on all the edits since he/she has not looked at it yet. I had a more detailed conversation with agent #2 about the revisions yesterday and they're reasonable, I don't love all of them and he wants me to cut a pretty huge chunk, but I can live with them...I think. I can't imagine agent #1's revisions being more significant/worse...then again I may have just jinxed myself there!

flyingtart: I can't really get agent #1 to give me more detail, but there have been no huge red flags so far. I also asked him if he thought there would be anything crazy like "delete this character" or something, and he said he didn't think so. I think it's just a general tightening, a toning down of violence and language, and then you know whatever other crazy stuff they come up with. I also feel like both agents are pretty open to compromise. If they give me a list they're not going to throw me out if I fight a couple of the changes, or do them differently than they had envisioned (that's how it FEELS at least).

Yeah, no contract seems pretty standard. Interestingly enough, yesterday agent #2 offered me a contract now. But I'm trying not to let that sway me since I know it kind of means nothing in the grand scheme...

Claire: I already have the list of clients and sales for both and I have a general idea of where they're thinking we might submit, but since for either agent I probably have a couple months (please only be a month!) of revisions, I don't think I'd expect either to know for sure where they want to submit until we see the "final" version.

Laura Lond: I'm not wild about Agent #2's suggestion for a huge chunk being cut (though it would be a page cut overall and not just one section, so it's not like I'll be losing something specific that I'm attached to). On further discussion with Agent #1 he said he never asks for a page cut, but rather whatever the revision brings (if it cuts pages, great, if it add pages and feels right then so be it) - this obviously makes me more comfortable.

I also had a little further dialogue with Agent #1 about the revisions and though there's still the potential for some of them to be problematic since I'm not getting a lot of specifics there are still no red flags.

Claire: Thanks!

illiterwrite: The freelance editor's pay comes out of the agent's percentage. So it's in everyone's best interest to make the book as good as it can be, so everyone's pay goes up - seems like a great system to me. I tend to agree with you - I'm sure most agents are also pretty good editors these days, but it seems like an editor who really does that for a living is an advantage. The revisions might be more brutal, but the book might be significantly better. The more I think about it, the more I like this aspect of Agent #1 process.

stormie: Thanks! It didn't bother me, I think he was just trying to convey how excited he was about the book, and he knew from the moment he started reading it that I was already in talks with another agency and that he was competing with them, so I think he was just trying to make me understand how much he really loves it. And I do believe he loves it -which is amazing. I think they both think it has really big potential and feel pretty passionate about it. I honestly never thought I'd have this problem.

loiterer: Part of the problem is that they both seem to be responding to the same things. They both seem to really like my writing style (which is good so that hopefully they like the next book) but with this book specifically I think they both see the potential for it to potentially be very commercial and hit kind of big (thus big sales I guess). They both think the idea is very original and that my voice is very "fresh and unique". Literally, they have used all these same words.

The real problem is that it's like "all things being equal"...

Who the hell do I choose?

I think I've decided. Thank you all for your help. All your thoughts and comments have really been great - even just writing on this board helped me organize my thoughts in general. And thanks for all the well wishes too!