Why would an agent request an exclusive submission?
I understand why publishers often ask for exclusive submissions. They're counting on a story that has been submitted to them to be available for them to purchase if they decide they like it and it fits in with their current publication.
But why would an agent request an exclusive submission when it's not so much the story they're looking at but the author themselves? Is this a common thing among agents? Generally my understanding is that authors work for publishers and agents work for authors. I understand it's more complicated than that, but what advantage does an agent gain by requesting exclusive submissions other than keeping an author from submitting to other agents until they decide to reject or accept them?
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Because evaluating an author's work is expensive. It consumes time that could otherwise be spent finding other authors. That time is a dead loss if the author signs with another agent.
In the end this is a matter of power. While the agent does work for that author, there are more authors looking for agents than there are agents looking for authors, so the agent gets to set the terms of the courtship.
If the author comes with an existing platform, of course, then the power is reversed. If George Clooney wants a literary agent, he can submit to as many as he wants and they will drop everything they are doing to read his stuff. (If they even bother to read it.)
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