Pub Rants

NYT Bestseller List Has Been Very Good To Us This Year

by Kristin Nelson

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STATUS: I’m not sure I believe all this good news but it is, indeed, all true.

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? THE MODERNIST by Steve Davis

Yesterday I didn’t get a chance to blog because I did a guest blog over at thelitcoach. All of my blog readers are super savvy on all this query pitch paragraph stuff but maybe some new readers might want to check out the post.

And even if you are an old pro at query letters but generally hate them, this post teaches you the shortcut on how to write a terrific pitch blurb in your query letter. Always worth repeating I think.

But now on to the amazing news of the day!

Back in April, I blogged about hitting an Agency milestone by having 3 authors all on the NYT bestseller list at the same time.

Well, guess what? It’s happened again and even more delightful, it’s the same 3 authors. How wild is that? But very cool.

So huge congrats to Jamie Ford (48 consecutive weeks on the NYT list and at #19 this week), Gail Carriger (coming in for the second time this year at #20), and Simone Elkeles (also coming in for the second time this year at #6).

Color me happy!


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21 Responses

  2. Krista V. said:

    HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET was the first book I recommended on my blog, and it remains the one book I recommend to just about everyone.

    P.S. Just finished HEIST SOCIETY. Loved it!

  10. LaylaF said:

    Congrats all around. I recently read Jamie Ford’s HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET and when I was buying it the sales clerk told me…”Oh, this is a really good book.” She was right. I have to say that it is now one of my all time favorites! He has a beautiful writing style and has coupled that with a very touching story and just the right amount of historical references. It was amazing! I couldn’t put it down. I recommend it to everyone out there! And I can’t wait to read his next book.

  16. Anonymous said:

    I don’t know if you read the comments section but just in case, I’ve got a quick question about the query process.

    If you have an offer in hand from a publishing house, how do you open the letter?

    I have interest from an editor of a major house and I’m gearing up to find an agent. I can’t for the life of me think how to open – especially if you guys jump to the pitch paragraph first. I feel like I should be opening with an explanation of how I got to the position of getting an offer and some background info.

    Of course, I know the actual book still matters…

    I’d love to hear your thoughts.
    Thanks!

  17. Krista V. said:

    Anon 3:00, Kristin doesn’t usually answer questions in the comments, but you might try Nathan Bransford’s forums. Under the “All Things Finding an Agent” subforum, he has an “Ask Nathan” thread that he updates at least every couple of days.

    Best of luck to you. And congratulations!

  19. Charity Bradford said:

    Congratulations! There are several in this list on hold at the library as we speak.

    I have a question. You and Sara are both in my list of authors that I would like to query. Since you work together, should I just pick one? Or is it alright to send my query to both of you?

  20. Anonymous said:

    Thanks Krista! I’ll head there.

    It’s a shame more agents don’t respond to comments. I’m sure that’s how Nathan became the most popular agent on the net – his willingness to interact with his commenters.

    However… he doesn’t represent my genre and Kristin does. *sigh*