Unfavorable market conditions?

What agent? It almost sounds like they're telling vanity pressed authors that their credits are not legitimate. I would bet that you're still permitted to query, just not submit a full manuscript unless requested.

That's weird.


Heh. Bona fide publisher...

You coulda just mentioned RC instead of making me look for it, SF.

Maybe the market conditions are an internal situation at that particular agency. I checked their previous news and they have agented a lot of fiction, compared to non-fiction.

Partnership breakup? Lost their best agent to another firm? I doubt the whole fiction market has gone belly up, especially with Harry Potter 7 coming out very soon.

I was going to say I'd seen that same statement on a few agent pages, but now that I've been going over it in my brain, I think I saw it just there - at RC's page.

I figured it was agent-speak for "go away, don't send me anything!"

Market

He's saying he either has trouble selling writers with no credits, or that he's rich enough, and has plenty of good clients already, so he's only taking on sure things.

Quite a few top agents only want previously published writers, and the excuses they use run from unfavorable market conditions, to the phase of the moon.

Yeah, that's just scary. Good thing there are agents out there who are willing to take a chance on up-and-coming writers, or the world would eventually run out of previously-published ones.

Then what would we read?

Well, you can always "rediscover" the past and read authors from the last century (and yes, I am referring to 20th century).

Oh, he's rich enough, I'll attest to that. I'm one of his ex-clients and I got totally lost in his shuffle. His sub-agents have taken on and sold a tremendous amount of fiction for the past forty years and he is a very popular target for SF and Fantasy--always has been. He might have sold 90 novels last year instead of 100. Such is Richard's attitude toward his market, so he might have adopted the attitude--can't beat last year's figures, well, the hell with it then.

Even if you're a client of his, I found that he won't converse with you or exchange mail unless you are one of his top guns. That was my experience anyway, and another AWer has confirmed the same treatment. My personal opinion was that he was very elite, a bit snooty. I could never understand why.

Rob Cohen was my sub there for over two years a while back. Just recently I sent three snail mail letters wanting to contact her, or inquire about her status. She was on her way to creating her own agency.

Even though my letters were very polite and contained the SASE, they never answered me. I yell, there is a huge echoe there. And I was a past client.

Answer to the question: fiction has ALWAYS been a hard sell.

Tri

This is Curtis's opinion of the fiction market. It's not other agents' , as is attested to by the very large number of agents who do read fiction by previously unpublished writers.

- Victoria

Thank you to the person who just PMed me with Rob Cohen's agency listing. She did form her own agency! I've been looking for her for 15-years. She's a great friend and mentor, and a great agent, for any of you who write SF and F. Although, I don't know what her guidelines are as of today.

Tri

At the behest of an editor, I contacted RC several years ago and he (personally) read my manuscript. I have nothing but respect for him, but I do think he has gotten to the point where a work has to fit a model he's comfortable with for him to get excited (of course, this could be the mantra of every agent). He wrote me a detailed letter explaining why he didn't want to take on my work, and although I didn't agree with his reasoning (how could I, since he rejected me?), I thought he showed a lot of class.

I do, however, have tremendous empathy for the earlier poster who was shuffled down his staff. And there is no excuse for not taking a client's phone calls, even if the agent is selling 150 titles a year. I was disappointed to hear that about this treatment of a client, and I will tuck that away. One undeniable fact is that RC is a bit eccentric (Can one be a bit eccentric? I think my mother was.). He explained once that a novel had to X size to be juicy enough (I swear, that was the quote attributed to him in a book that
he wrote). And have you seen his signature? er, straightish line with a very subtle hint of deflection. That's got to make him evil or something. Just joking Richard. But you need to return your phone calls.