Some stats for writers seeking an agent

These sobering figures from Pub Rants, the blog of an agent, Kristen Nelson, from Denver, U.S. – the stats are for 2010.

9 new clients taken on in 2010 (for two agents)

36,000 number of queries read and responded to (around 120/day)

98 full manuscripts requested and read

839 number of sample pages requested and read 

 Think about this. Of 36,000 hopeful writers, exactly 9 had their dreams answered. That is 0.025%. Or one in every 4000. And they still haven’t been accepted for publication…

Some years back, when I was hunting for an agent and/or publisher myself, I remember reading the statistic for one large publishing house, and it was rather similar. They took on 1 in about every 4,000-5,000 mss they received.

When I consider stats like this, I feel blessed that I am one of the lucky ones. Sure, I worked hard, but so do a lot of people.  Sometimes I take a deep breath, and think of the little girl who decided around the age of eight that she was going to be “an authoress”, and wonder just how I got here. And I still have reason to be grateful: you guys who are reading my books (and not stealing them from free torrent sites) are keeping my career alive.  Thank you.

You can read Kristen’s whole blog post here.

Comments

Some stats for writers seeking an agent — 2 Comments

  1. Makes me glad I didn't pursue writing. Not that I ever could make up my mind what I wanted to write about. I don't get paid, but at least with a blog I can write what I like and although it is better to have readers, I don't need them to make a living, grateful as I might be to have them reading what I write.

    You write good books girl, why wouldn't they pick you? I'm glad they did of course.

  2. Oh wow…the statistics leave me speechless.

    I got 3 rejections today, in a row, and was feeling a little bit blue, but I'll keep trying!

    And I agree with Jo 😀 Your books are amazing!

    Cheers,
    Ika

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