Every December I look forward to agent Kristin Nelson’s post in which she gives her agency’s statistics for the year.
Yesterday, she did the post for 2008 here.
Here are a few of those stats:
- 35,000 estimated queries read and responded to
- 88 full manuscripts requested
- 2 new clients signed
- 21 books sold
Compare these to her stats from 2007:
- 30,000--estimated queries read and responded to
- 74--full manuscripts requested
- 8--new clients signed
- 22--books sold
Just for fun, I averaged the stats to see how 2008 compared to 2007.
In 2007, Kristin read an average of 82 queries every single day of the year or 577 a week. This year, she averaged 96 every day or 673 a week.
In 2007, she read 405 queries for every full manuscript she requested. In 2008, she read 398 queries for every full manuscript she requested.
Is it any wonder that we keep telling unpublished writers to polish, polish and polish some more their manuscripts and queries? More than 99% of queries do not result in a request for a full. Your manuscript must be the absolute best it can be before you send it out into the world to fend for itself.
2 comments:
Those statistics are both frightening and sobering. Yikes!
I am linking to this. Always wanted to see these kinds of stats. The next time someone asks me about writing a book and making some fast money I'll just pass this on and save myself a lot of explaining.
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