Changing Agents

I think it depends on the house and how far up the foodchain your book goes. Frex, at my publisher, all books my editor is interested in buying get taken to the editorial meeting to be discussed and fought for. She gives it to other editors (and marketing) for a second read, and then a decision is made. But if your book never makes it to the editorial meeting, it might be a different story.

When a book is submitted to a publisher it is read by multiple editors- it is highly unlikely that book would be bought just because another agent submitted it- What may happen is that another publisher might be interested or a smaller press that the other agent has a relationship with- What is more likely is that the author stays with the agent - sets that project aside and starts another book -
Of course it might be different for Non fic- That depend quite a bit more on the pitch and timing...
Now even though LOTTERY went to auction- the first editor it was submitted to at Putnam decided to pass it on to another editor at Putnam he thought would be perfect for it-
I really have to say that if your book was passed on it's really unlikely to be picked up at that house after re submittal-

It depends. I know of one book that was passed on by one reasonably high-up editor at a big house and then was eagerly accepted by another reasonably high-up editor at a different imprint of the same house (I know this because I was one of the authors of said book).

So, yeah, I can imagine a case where an agent sent a manuscript to Jane Doe at Villard, and Jane didn't go for it, and then said agent didn't submit to other editors at other Random House imprints; New Agent comes along and realizes it's a perfect fit for Richard Roe at Shaye Areheart Books, and Roe falls in love with it and all is well.

At some level of granularity, this might look to an author who didn't know a lot about the publishing industry like New Agent had more pull at Random House than Old Agent. And New Agent may well have had a better inside track to what the folks at Shaye Areheart were looking for in this case. On the other hand, Roe could have been a recent hire and/or the imprint could have just decided to focus on topics or markets that were a good match with this book, and if Old Agent had sent the MS over to Shaye Areheart six months ago, they might have passed on it as well.

I think that this is why good, detailed communication is something authors really should be looking for in an agent.

I did not mean to imply every book that's passed on is seen by every editor- in order to buy a book (like icecream says) more than just a solitary editor sees it- and yes imprints in the same house do differ-
As far as how often this happens- and whether the agent makes a difference- hard to say unless you are picked up by Binky...