I’ve had a few. This is from an agent queried by J.R.R. Tolkien about his YA novel "The Hobbit.":
"This might be a good place to mention the apparent gender imbalance in the work. There would appear to be just a slight deficiency of female characters in the story. To put this another way, there are none – zilch – zero. There are men with hairy feet, men with long beards, men with pipes, men who can see in the dark – there are even men who can turn into bears. There are men of every size, shape and smoking habit imaginable, but the closest you come to a female character is the inclusion of several slightly effeminate elves. This just won’t cut it in today’s publishing world."
Oh, no, no gender imbalance. Perish the thought. And let’s have a story that looks like Middle Earth!
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 