[John Jarrold]

Yes, you're right about the big agencies not necessarily seeing the gold in the dross, where SFF is concerned.

Exactly like publishers, the huge majority of the typescripts sent to agents simply aren't good enough. In terms of ALL submissions to agents, I've been told by old friends in the business that taking on one client out of 100 submissions is reckoned good going. Since starting the agency over two years ago, I've taken on just over 20 clients - but I've now turned down well over 1300 submissions. And 90% of those could be turned down after reading ten pages - that is the norm in publishing, too. There were six major debuts in the genre in the UK this year.