Josh Getzler
So the year is ending with a real bang. Nancy Bilyeau's The Crown (over which I still have major schpilkes), is getting great reviews and is setting up nicely. I got a call the day before leaving for vacation that I will be selling a new book at the very beginning of January. I am eagerly awaiting three new publications between the beginning of January and the end of May. And I'm in the middle of several manuscripts with truly great potential. So I decided that I would go through the last year in numbers. It's been an exciting, nerve-wracking year with an awful lot going on both for my own business and for the publishing industry in general. Here are some of the highlights.
Number of months HSG Agency has been in Soho: 7 (May 23)
Number of clients on my list on Jan 1: 28
Number of clients on my list now: 41
Number of deals made during calendar year 2011: 12 (domestic: Doesn't include foreign contracts)
Number of books in those deals: 20
Number of Adult novels: 7 (of the 12 deals)
Mysteries: 4
Thrillers: 1
Women's fiction: 1
Literary/science fiction: 1
Number of Adult nonfiction books: 3
Number of children's books: 2
Number of books currently out on submission: 16 (note: this is an ENORMOUS number, and not what I would really like to have out simultaneously. That being said, there are still enough publishers/editors, and the books are disparate enough, that we can handle it. And we are also going to have 6 new manuscripts coming up for submission early in 2012. But we also expect three or four of these submissions to turn into deals in January. So that's pretty good.)
Number of clients I signed out of conferences in 2011: 2
Number of clients I signed from referrals in 2011: 7
Number of clients I signed from the slush pile in 2011: 4
Number of clients who are spouses of other clients: 1
Number of clients I have who are the result of Cali Yost, whether directly or indirectly: 4
Average number of submissions received weekly: 80 Number of full manuscripts in my "Must read RIGHT NOW" list: 18
Length of time, from first query to sale, of Sam Thomas's historical mysteryThe Midwife's Tale: 6 Weeks.
Length of time, from first query to sale, of Sheila Webster Boneham's mystery Drop Dead on recall: 2 years and a bit.
Length of time, from sale to publication, of Otis Webb Brawley and Paul Goldberg's medical screed How We do Harm: 1 year, 7 months.
Length of time, from first electronic text conversion to publication, of A.B. Bourne's The First Secret of Edwin Hoff: 6 weeks.
These are some interesting, specific-to-me numbers, which should not be taken as representative of, well, any greater trend or tendency of other agents. It has been a pleasure blogging this year--it's made my Tuesdays sparkle a bit, and I really appreciate the feedback I've gotten. I look forward to continuing and to getting still more of your comments and corrections and praise and pillory.
May 2012 be happy and successful in all the ways you wish it to be.
Josh
