It’s that magic time of year when I tally up the numbers and share Kristin’s Yearly Stats! Apologies for being so slow to get this posted.
37 : total number of New York Times bestsellers (up from 33 total in 2014)
51 : books released in 2015 (22 print releases, 9 reprints, and 21 digital releases)
3 : new clients, two of whom sold at auction for six figures. One deal is public, the other is not yet announced. The third client is going on submission next month!
29,000+ : estimated number of queries read and responded to
87 : full manuscripts requested and read (up from 45 last year)
129 : number of sample pages requested and read (down from 856 last year. See my January Newsletter column Think Like An Agent below to learn why we requested far fewer sample pages this year than we have in years past.)
2 : number of projects currently on submission
71 : foreign-rights deals done (down from 99 last year, mainly because I only took on one client in 2014), 14 in Asia, 3 in Brazil, 3 in Mexico/Latin America, and 51 in Europe
4 : TV and major motion picture deals
46 : number of print runs for my longest-selling title, which is Jamie Ford’s HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET—which originally published in 2009. Twelve for the hardcover version, 34 for the paperback—four of which occurred in 2015! Crazy for a title to still be getting reprints after six years.
8 : conferences attended (which includes Bologna Book Fair, London, BEA, and Frankfurt Book Fair)
3 million+ : copies in print/sold for my bestselling long-running series this year
2.5 million+ : copies in print/sold for my bestselling individual title
3.5 million+ : copies sold for my bestselling hybrid author
Millions and Millions : ebooks sold for four of my bestselling indie-publishing-only authors. I can’t even track anymore.
100 : physical holiday cards sent
539 : electronic holiday cards sent
Not telling it’s so embarrassing : number of eggnog chai lattes consumed during November and December
Lots : of late nights reading on my living-room chaise with Chutney
All : great days loving my job!
Happy New Year!
Jamie Ford’s HOTEL deserves all those print runs … and at least one more.
I’m no math major (for example, I don’t even want to see the answer to 29,000+ divided by 87 to understand odds) but I think you had 52 books released last year if I’m adding 22, 21 and 9 correctly. Or does that mean something released in print and digital form is only counted once?
No matter how you slice it, congratulations on a terrific year!
Congrats on an amazing year!
The three new agents out of more than 29,000 queries read and responded to…Well, that gives me an idea of what I’m up against.
Thanks for sharing these numbers! I love numbers of any kind, but these are especially tasty.
Just curious – how many of those three new clients came from the 29k+ query letters?
Your other post talked about reading the sample pages, and how that impacted your requests, so obviously you’re scouring your queries for books you want to represent, but I know agents get clients through conferences and referrals too, so I was curious about that 3 client stat.