I promise I'm not having a go at anyone here, I'm just sitting here weeping over the fact that the demand for books by one section of the public is over-catered while another section is starved and the people who claim to care the most are the ones who dish the rations.

When your digging a hole, you really should stop before it's so deep that you can't reach up to the top edge

Told you everybody makes mistakes. I suppose that means the delete button for me.

Tell me everything about your 260 page novel and don't leave out the end.. and do it in two pages. There are one or two agents now commanding this be done in one page. Well having spent 18 months dripping sweat onto my keyboard not to mention research and editing and having crafted a plot so that the reader can only find out the ending when the read is concluded, I can't tell you how pleasing it is to have some joker tell me if I don't this then…. Delete button. The fact is, if you can put a novel into a 2 page synopsis, then you don't have much of a story. You will probably find one bit is missing and that bit will be what is known as the plot. It's just a fact, size ten feet don't fit into size 3 boots.
So having assured the bright new author is just like the not so bright any more author of last year and now guaranteed the plot will not be overtaxing the agent moves on to the sample.

So now let me the author present to me the agent.
Dear Agent Me,
for your consideration I have attached my manuscript, a horror story titled Devil's Seed of 115,000 words.

Now me the agent can read it and when I reach the bottom of the first page I can ask myself; Do I want to read the next page? If the answer is yes, I ask that again at the next page. If I find there are no more pages to read, then it's most likely the manuscript is at least pretty good and I fancy I'm going to represent it.
But what if it doesn't fit the market module???
As I said, it should be boom time for books in a bad economy. Dollar per hour you can't get better value entertainment. If cash is tight stay in and read. If you are reading a good book and the phone rings, or there's a knock at the door the interruption will annoy you. When you finish a good book you will miss it, like a lost lover, but remember it with an almost unhealthy found regard. A good book is a thing of beauty that will stay somewhere in your thoughts for the whole of your life, but you will never find one unless these agents get there fingers out and start pitching them to publishers.
If it is good but doesn't fit the business module that is the one to pitch to the publishers. That's the one that people want to buy but cant find it on the shelves. And if that manuscript doesn't fit the business module, well in the words of Kevin Costner "Build a field and they will come."

First, will somebody enlighten me as to why double space. To me, this is uncomfortable to read. I can understand that in the year of
our Lord 1817 A.D. they didn't have computers. I might be wrong but I don't think they had photocopiers then either and when a manuscript was completed it would be a one off and line spacing was needed for editing, but the world has moved on. Why not read the manuscript presented as close as possible to format the end-user will receive it. Surly this can only help in making a better judgment.
Anyway the manuscript must be high concept, hold a strong voice, have multi-layered characters and set at a pace to snare its readers. Sorry but the only phrase that comes to mind is…. What a pretentious load of old bollocks. A good story is a good story, is a good story. That's all that matters. I've read of one agent who has a mantra there must be conflict on every page. Why? I agree there must be conflict and plenty of it, but there is nothing wrong if at points, the story has a smoother ride because it will enhance the conflict in following passages. From one well known agent, passed to every agent in Christendom and from there to the world at large, we have; "The perspective must stay with the protagonist or the reader will not form an association." I have to say I think it is nothing short of arrogant that agents think they are the mouth for the reading public in this way. Writing in the third person is a tool for the exact purpose of changing perspective. If an author has a good story why should it not be explored from more than one viewpoint? If you were on a ship and wanted to see the sea would you view it though the porthole or would you stand on the deck?

I now buy books from charity stores, not because I'm tight with money (though I am), but because the shelves are packed with quality, while the bookstore is full of pap.
So I guess that makes me one of the guys that doesn't read books. I say that because I think your question really is; why don't men buy books.

As I said, it is because there are no books to buy, not in fiction anyway. What is on offer is so dier that someone here gives a rave for Stigg Larsson's ' Dragon Tattoo. That was the last new book I read and that because it was pressed into my hand with the promise of a good read. Well what a load of old trite that was. Over-laboured characters, dull seine setting and not only is the plot weak but there's a hole in it a train can be driven though. It was obvious the girl was alive after 5 pages. I have to say if that book was the first book I ever read then I would never have read a second one.
But it is written to the formula so it gets published, worse it gets praise because of the formula books that fill the bookstore, it is actually one of the better ones.
Just had a thought, when the one book with a thousand covers is set for its second life via a charity store, good causes are going to feel the pinch.

So why are there no exciting books books being published?

The blame, I think, rests with the author's agent. It's no good matey-boy, agent moaning "This is the business model we have to work with." It's the monster the agent created and it has devoured all things worth reading so that now it doesn't have to share the shelf with anyone.

So how did this happen?
About 25 years ago an author had every chance of being discovered from a publisher slush pile which were stacked floor to ceiling in their offices. Today publishers don't have to look at manuscripts, they just sit and wait for agents to bring them what they claim is going to be the next big thing. Because the agent has too much of a vested interest in making sure the new author they are representing makes the numbers in terms of sales to ensure their own cut, they look at what has sold big in the market last season. So a manuscript arrives that is not too far different from last years biggie, which makes it is less of a gamble to promote than something that is truly original. So for the sake of her own pay cheque the agent promotes what her censorship tells her is the safer gamble.

I'm sure any agent reading this will protest that they select only the most worthy of the manuscripts delivered to her, so lets examine the process, because most likely the agent will not even read the best manuscripts she receives.

The agent says: Don't send me any attachments I don't want you sending me any of those nasty viruses.
If I were in a job where incoming email was essential and I were worried about phish and viruses, I would first ensure I had a heavy duty anti-virus program. Second, I would set up a server and use it only for those emails, so if a nasty got past the guard then it wouldn't end my world. Third, I would make sure I had the number for super-geek so if it ever did go wrong it wouldn't take long to put right.
But why spend what would cost no more than installing a phone when you can command the great unwashed to paste into the email. Never mind that it may take them hours reformatting because the paragraphing and double spacing squeeze when doing this.

Publishers no longer look for writers, they sit and wait for agents to bring writers to them. Agents look at what sold big last season because "that's what the market wants."
This has been the way of things for over 20 years now and all the while everyone in the industry is crying over falling markets.
Of course the market is falling, because the industry is narrowing the market every year. Lets not pretend it is anything to do with the economic climate. Fact is a generally bad economic situation is good for the book industry because a book is the best value entertainment money can buy, work it out dollar per hour and tell me I'm wrong. The lady agent, gets a query letter. Sees it is from a new author and checks the creds. It's from a grad, who has learned from the same teacher as all the other grads to write in the same way as all the other grads. The subject matter, while not exactly the same, is close enough to last season's big seller that the section of the public that read last years blockbuster might well go this year's "refreshing and innovative" new author. And so the great new talent is just like the great old talent.

Why don't guys read books? Because agents don't look at manuscripts that don't have a love interest. Because agents wont take a chance on a book that does not follow formula.
This is why the male readership has fallen away, because there is nothing on the shelf to buy. I reckon 40% of the market has fallen by the wayside because no book is better than a bad book.

I'm not saying everything on the shelf today is bad, just it is only suitable to a selective audience.

Someone here mentioned Stigg Larsson's 'Dragon Tattoo, well that's the last new book I've read and if it had been the first book I'd ever read, then I would never have read another book in my life. It's a tired, same old, same old plot, it's obvious after 5 pages the girl is still alive. The characters are over laboured. The seine setting is just plain dull and worst of all there's a hole in the plot that a train can be driven through. As a story it just does not work.
But it sticks to the formula and so it gets published.

Most of the guys posted here I agree with, a book needs action, but not super-hero action. Action with conflict of emotion. Human action, when it's dangerous the hero gets scared, when he's with a girl he sometimes gets nervous. And sometimes he does normal everyday things, like take a dump. Heroes with frailties, like real people.

Hemingway, Micky Spillane, George G. Gilbert, Robert A. Heinlein, Raymond Chandler, how many of these would be accepted as a client by an agent today? Easy to answer – NONE. because they didn't write to the formula. Most agents (and I'm not saying the ones who provide this blog, coz I don't know the crack with them, but at least they promise to read everything sent) say they are looking for "a new and strong voice" but what they seek is the old voice in a slightly different pitch. Meanwhile the most part of a generation of male book readers have grown up with nothing worth reading.