Changing agents in mid-stream?

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Don't know if this has been asked before (I'm asking for a friend), but allow me to set up the scenario.

A writer's agent got a deal with a small house for the first novel in a series. Since the launch, sales have been dismal, and the agent seems disinterested in working any further with the author. My friend is ready to change agents, but is wondering if any of them would be willing to take on the second book and pitch it to a better house. He says although it's a series, each story can be read as a stand-alone. By the way, per his contract he gets his rights back to that first novel in another twelve months.

Has anyone ever heard of an agent doing this, i.e., taking on a writer with a stillborn book? More to the point, what their names?

Thanks.
 

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Blacbird makes a good point.

Your friend might well find an agent willing to work with him or her; but finding an agent willing to take on the second book in a series is only marginally easier than finding a publisher willing to take on the second book in a series.
 

heza

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I know you didn't ask this question, but my advice is, if the second book is really standalone, heavily revise it so it's truly standalone and no longer associated with the first book.
 

Treehouseman

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Did the publisher know they were getting a series, or was the contract only for one book? If it was only for one, I think your friend might have been aware that further publication of the series was sales dependent and somewhat wishful thinking: I guess they got their answer the hard way of their book's viability in the market. :-(