[Agency] Max & Co (Michael Murphy)

Hey all.
I've spent the last week researching agents and such and breaking them up into two groups.
Those that'll accept emails and those that wont.
The last two days I've been emailing those who do in fact accept emailed queries.
As per usual I didn't expect to hear from anyone for months, but a fellow I emailed this evening has responded very quickly, with very useful critical feedback and a show of interest.
The fellows name is Michael Murphy and a Googlesearch seems to reveal nothing sinister, in fact quite the opposite.
I emailed him specifically because his online bio suggested he liked "quirky visual books" which is exactly what I'm peddling.
So I have some questions.
1) Should I be shocked to get a response so quickly.
2) Has anyone heard of him? His website is HERE.
3) Does anything on that website strike you as odd or out of place?
4) Would it be poor protocol to post his response on here?
5) If I pursue this now should I stop sending the blasted thing out to all other places?
I guess the thing is that I've been bitten once, so I'm a little nervous of being excited.

Yes of course I should have done that from the outset.
Thanks Zen.

Thanks for that Kullervo.
I hadn't thought of that.

And, actually I quite liked the site design.
As an illustrator/designer I kind of take it as a good sign.

So should I begin correspondence with him at the same time I'm sending other stuff out???

No he didn't - I'm not actually sure what a partial is though.

What he did say was that the narrative in the books needed work but that he he loved the artwork and the stories and the short films I made based on the books enough to try and work on it.

"Now, how do we build your narrative?

Not sure yet....would love to figure out."

Is what he said.

Wendy - Think Edward Gorey, or Lane Smith.
Picture books for grown ups.
Graphic novels.
That kind of thing.

Well I've had another email back from Michael.

He feels he'd have a hard time selling what I've got at the moment but feels there's opportunity to make revisions that make make it more commercial, which I'll tackle over the next few days.

I guess this is the way it works?

Well.
Since I last posted I managed to get him to take a look at the other two books in the series and I that seems to have worked.
He has asked if I'd like him to try and sell them.
Bugger me.
I guess there's no promises in this gig but it's mighty nice to see someone "get" what I'm doing and realise that there must be other folks out there who want to see it.
I am feeling confident that this is all above level and would like to thank you chaps for your feeback on the matter.

It is true that the website is of a very individual nature.
However - it's good design, and there are several books on the site that do actually exist on Amazon.
My correspondence with Michael Murphy has been nothing but friendly, easy going and honest.
He's about the only agent type who's seen my work and "gets" it (not that there's that much to "get" I wouldn't have thought).
He's asked me for no money of any kind and has stressed that he's prepared to sell the book the way I want it sold, and in fact turned down my suggestion of something much flashier.
I'll be speaking to him tomorrow just to confirm some stuff.

In short he's said that it's a very hard sell, but he wants to try.
I believe very much in these things I've been working on, and I think he sees the potential if it works which may be why he's willing to give it a go.

Well I had a really nice and encouraging chat with Michael today.
He seems confident that someone out there will want to publish this little project of mine.
He was a very nice fellow with many of the same thoughts about creating that I consider very important.
How very gratifying.
We discussed how he wanted to sell the book, when he'd be pestering people about it, who he'd be pestering people about it and briefly the process should someone say "Oh yes, great, here's some cash. Let's do it".
He was very keen to enforce that he'd sell the book the way I wanted him to sell it.
I told him that he could sell it any way he liked and if I especially disagreed I'd say so.
I invite everyone to cross their fingers for me.