Friday, January 9, 2015

Breaking Down 2014

This was a year of GROWTH for me, and it's definitely reflected in my activity! More clients, more sales, more belly all the way around.

Here's how my agent life stacked up in numbers for 2014:

Queries (unsolicited) rec’d:


Request rates (based on above):

Partial: .4%
Partial Request genres:

  • MG Contemp Fantasy (3)
  • Adult/YA crossover contemp
  • Adult Cozy (2)
  • Romantic Suspense
  • YA fantasy
  • YA fairy tale fantasy
  • YA historical

Full: 1%
Full Request genres:

  • MG fantasy (3)
  • MG multi-culti contemp
  • MG contemporary (2)
  • YA paranormal
  • YA mystery/thriller/psych suspense (3)
  • YA LGBT fantasy
  • YA fantasy
  • NA contemp
  • NA fantasy
  • Adult/YA crossover contemp
  • Adult contemp romance (3)
  • Adult sci-fi/fantasy
  • Cozy mystery (2)
  • PB (text & art) (2)
  • PB biography (2)
  • PB (text only)

Offers: .6%
Signed Genres:
  • YA LGBT Magical Realism
  • Adult sci fi/fantasy
  • Adult psychological suspense
  • Adult contemp romance
  • Adult/YA crossover contemp
  • Cozy mystery
  • PB (text)
  • PB biography
  • PB (text & art)

This means, roughly, that I requested a partial on 4 out of every 1000, a full once out of every 100, and offered on 6 out of every 1000 queries I received.

This year, I was 270% likely to request the full from a partial
I was 59.3% likely to make an offer on a full request

In sum: I was more likely to request a full, and I was very much actively building my list, so this was a big request and offer year (vs. last year, I was 56% full from partial and 21.6% on offer)

Avg. response time:
Partial: 7 weeks
Full: 9 weeks

R&R’s requested: 3 (.1%)
Offers from R&Rs: 0 (however, I signed 2 I'd worked with since last year)

In Sum: despite it being a big offer and full year, I had little patience for revisions. It needed to be READY!


Months with most requests: February, April & May (last year Jan-Feb, September)

Months with most queries: March, June-July (last year, Jan-Feb & Sept-Nov)

Most active period of offering and signing: Jan-Feb & June (last year May-June)

Obviously, with being closed to submissions until May 1, this year's trends will be very different! But just how did last year's growth all pan out for me? Well:


My agent resolution last year was to increase turnaround time (to respond) on requests and edits. How did I do? Considering that my response times were 7 weeks on a partial and 8 weeks on a full last year...I totally failed. I know my numbers got way dragged down later in the year during the Horrid First Trimester when I got behind in everything. BUT, maybe the longer wait was worth it as it was more likely to turn into an offer and/or sale?! :D

This year's resolution: keep up the momentum! 

I know this is going to be a particular challenge, as baby drops into my life and shakes everything up. I wanted, last year, to really have tons in the hopper in prep for that. I'm a fighter; I'm hitting the ground running in 2015, and though this Spring may be a quieter time for me as I adjust to momhood (whoa) and focus on existing clients...look out Summer and Fall!!!

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Happy New Year!!!


CC by SA 2.0 at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Strawberry_and_champagne.jpg
(What I wish I was drinking)


May old rejections be forgot
And never brought to mind

May unmet goals be forgot
And left to days long ago


Dream big - set SMART goals - and DON'T GIVE UP!!