Sampa4, I think it's time to buy the 2014 GLA edition.

This website is invalid. Same goes with deets on this firm in 2013 Guide to Literary Agents.

Closed to queries.

(Thanks kboatman)

I saw on the website that they are no longer accepting unsolicited submissions.

Has anybody heard anything at all from this agency since Mr. Murphy's post here? Did he get badgered into silence?

I queried on 2/17, followed up around 3/6...nuthin'. I am the queen of bad timing, I suppose.

According to Guide to Literary Agents, they listed Max and Company of representing commercial fiction, when here, at AQ, and their website, they didn't. I got a rejection just for that, and let GLA know. I got a rejection today, the same day I sent it out.

Update: Received rejection 5 hours after email submission of literary fiction:

Thanks for your query.

That is does not capture my interest enough to agree to represent the work, my rejection is based on my personal, arbitrary, (snotty) opinion and nothing to do with your talent nor ability to be published.

I wish you well with others.

Michael Murphy
-------------------------------
Sent a query letter with Chapters 1,2,5,6 attached (total 55 pages). His guidelines said to attach several chapters, one of which had to be be the opening chapter since he likes to see how the book gets started.

24 hour turnaround:

Michael-
Thank you for your query.

The book business is undergoing some dramatic shifts. Mostly what has happened has hurt my ability to place smart first fiction. I have a bit of a stockpile right now and choose not to take on more until I find good homes for the writers I currently carry.

I wish you well with others.

Query on late 10/26, reply early 10/27. A nice, chatty rejection--"not quite my sweet spot...merely a comment about my taste, not your talent." Well, okay.

E Query 10/4/10 (late at night)
E Rejection 10/4/10 (even later at night!), with a simple "I am quite simply the wrong agent for your book."

Rejected with humor and good advice. Makes not getting him as an agent even worse. Damn my shitty book!

His response to my edgy YA book. He does represent quirky and offbeat, so I thought I would give it a shot. Obviously, he doesn't represent YA at all!

I don't represent YA

email query 5-24-10
email response 5-25-10

H.B.

Thank you for your query.

My reasons for declining to represent your work start with the fact that I'm very close to the straw on the camel's back point. I have taken on only 2 new clients in the last 9 months. Too many more will stretch me too thinly.

You deserve a fuller explanation than that. But, I am sorry to say I really do not give any more of myself these days than a basic "Thanks but no thanks." I love to engage writers, but finally I had to accept in doing so, I am either eating up too much of my time or I've made far too many unintended enemies when I try to critique or make other suggestions (most really just want my "yes" or "no").

I have been trained the hard way to go Vanilla when replying to queries.

I do wish you the best with other agents.

Michael Murphy

{My name in blue, the rest a form letter. Despite the "coolness" of the letter it is still a from rejection.}

Quickest rejection ever. I think it took 2 hours:

"Thank you for your query.

I will decline to represent the work.

You deserve a fuller explanation than that. But, I am sorry to say I really do not give any more of myself these days than a basic "Thanks but no thanks." I love to engage writers, but finally I had to accept in doing so, I am either eating up too much of my time ( I receive 20-200 queries a week) or I've made too many insta-enemies on email when I try to critique or make other suggestions (most really just want my ‘yes’ or ‘no’).

I have been trained the hard way to go Vanilla when replying to queries.

I do wish you the best with other agents."

Sent him a query on a crime/thriller with elements of humor and got back same day, one-line rejection: "I do not represent books like this." I think ignoring my query would have been more considerate and certainly no less helpful. This guy might be a little too full of himself.