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This is still all in the realm of the hypothetical, but given that it becomes closer to the reality, I'm very curious...

Let's say you have two new, previously unpublished and unrepresented authors who produced a collaborative novel. Let's say an agent was really interested in the novel. Would the fact that said novel was written by two people be a point against the agent picking the project up? I understand that agents don't represent books, but the writers themselves, so I have to wonder if this scenario would be problematic.

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Great question, though you're unlikely to get a good answer here - I don't imagine there are too many agents lurking on writers.SE :) I'd suggest you ask an agent - maybe on twitter. If you find a good answer, I hope you post it here! –  micapam Oct 30 '13 at 0:50
Thanks for the suggestion, I will continue my search for an answer and if I get one, I'll follow up! –  Kale Oct 31 '13 at 18:51

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From the perspective of a reader, I see no issue with it as long as the story is good; I've read a number of books written by multiple authors, but these are written by known authors. Still this implies that there is no particular issue with multi-authored novels.

A few examples:

The Empire Trilogy by Janny Wurts and Raymond E Feist
Good Omens by Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman

More here: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/24000.Best_Books_Written_By_Two_Authors

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Yeah, I've read and enjoyed quite a few books by multiple authors as well, but like you just observed these books are typically written by previously well known writers who presumably already have agent representation and/or the system well worked out. My primary worry (should I ever get to the point of trying to pitch my book) is that any agent I pitch too would be picking up two unknown authors in one fell swoop. Oh well. :) Thanks for the link! –  Kale Oct 29 '13 at 15:59

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