From Stephen Policoff’s ‘The Polite Screed of a Publishing Cliche’ (courtesy The Elegant Variation):

“My agent was thrilled. He was convinced the James Jones First Novel Prize would help sell the novel quickly. Shortly after that, he dropped dead.

The young agent to whom many of Clyde’s clients were assigned had no interest in representing my uncategorizable novel. ‘I can’t imagine what to do with this book,’ he shrugged. Neither could several other agents I contacted. Neither could I.”