Agent Batting Averages

skippingstone · Feb 3, 2010

We talk often about agent response rates to queries and how, if a query is working, we should be getting a response/request rate at least in the 10-20% range.

I'm curious what agents think of as a good response rate for the various projects they pitch to publishers. Do they expect 25% of their projects will be taken on? 50 percent? I'm sure there are super agents who get 95 percent of their clients' projects published, but what about your garden variety literary agent? I wonder what the batting average needs to be for an agency to be viable or considered successful. Anyone know?

Old Hack · Feb 4, 2010

I've been told by five or six agents now that they find deals for around 50% of all new clients that they take on. Once they've made that first sale then their hit-rates increase dramatically.

What's also important is how an agent works. Some have lots of clients and focus primarily on getting them home territory sales, whereas others have relatively few clients and aim to make multiple-territory sales for each and every one. One agent I was Twittering with last week told me she has fewer than 20 clients, but does her damnedest to sell their books into as many territories and formats as she can--which means her clients can get around 40 contracts for every single book that they write.

Now, that's the sort of agent I'd like. Sadly, she works in a genre different to the one I write in. Otherwise I'd pitch to her until my fingers fell off.

Sage · Feb 4, 2010

I don't know about batting averages, but I got a subscription to Publishers Marketplace a couple of weeks ago, and I was surprised by how few books most agents sold this past year. I guess it makes some sense (only so many books coming out any given year and there are so many agents), but it was just surprising to see so many with only one or two deals. Some popular agents with only a few sales over the course of several years.

Barbara R. · Feb 4, 2010

skippingstone said:
We talk often about agent response rates to queries and how, if a query is working, we should be getting a response/request rate at least in the 10-20% range.

I'm curious what agents think of as a good response rate for the various projects they pitch to publishers. Do they expect 25% of their projects will be taken on? 50 percent? I'm sure there are super agents who get 95 percent of their clients' projects published, but what about your garden variety literary agent? I wonder what the batting average needs to be for an agency to be viable or considered successful. Anyone know?

It varies widely by agent. Some agents take on a lot more material than others, figuring that if one book doesn't sell, another will. They might be happy to sell half of what they take on. Other agents are a lot more choosy and only take what they are quite sure they can sell. My former agent had a 90% success rate in selling fiction...not surprisingly, she was one of the hardest agents for a new writer to get.

Barbara R. · Feb 4, 2010

Old Hack said:
I've been told by five or six agents now that they find deals for around 50% of all new clients that they take on. Once they've made that first sale then their hit-rates increase dramatically.

What's also important is how an agent works. Some have lots of clients and focus primarily on getting them home territory sales, whereas others have relatively few clients and aim to make multiple-territory sales for each and every one. One agent I was Twittering with last week told me she has fewer than 20 clients, but does her damnedest to sell their books into as many territories and formats as she can--which means her clients can get around 40 contracts for every single book that they write.

Now, that's the sort of agent I'd like. Sadly, she works in a genre different to the one I write in. Otherwise I'd pitch to her until my fingers fell off.

There are advantages to small agencies, but this agent's claim sound a bit odd to me. Every agent tries to sell into different markets; they all have subagents in the major countries, and most of the the larger agencies have established relations with film agents, too. As for different formats...in the olden days, when I first started in the business, you could sell hardcover and paperback rights separately. Nowadays, the primary publisher generally gets the rights to all formats.

Seems to me that what this agent's doing isn't unusual, although, having fewer clients than most , she may have more time to personally follow up.

Barbara

Ken · Feb 4, 2010

... the criteria you're asking about really isn't available. So you can't really tell what an agent's overall success rate is, as far as I know. What I go by instead is the quality rather than quantity of the deals they've made. If I see that they've sold books to several big publishers and swung nice deals out of them then that's good enough for me in regards to their being good at selling. Of course there are other factors, too, which make an agent a good fit.

suki · Feb 4, 2010

Sage said:
I don't know about batting averages, but I got a subscription to Publishers Marketplace a couple of weeks ago, and I was surprised by how few books most agents sold this past year. I guess it makes some sense (only so many books coming out any given year and there are so many agents), but it was just surprising to see so many with only one or two deals. Some popular agents with only a few sales over the course of several years.

Not all agents post their deals on PM and few agents post all of their deals on PM, so it's not a comprehensive list of all of the books sold - only the ones reported to PM.

While it's useful to see what agents are selling, it's not the end all of what any particular agent has sold.

~suki

Old Hack · Feb 5, 2010

Barbara R. said:
There are advantages to small agencies, but this agent's claim sound a bit odd to me.

Barbara, I understand what you're saying but trust me--this is one of the most acclaimed agents in the UK. I know her client-list, and I've verified her claims. She is astounding, and her clients reap amazing rewards.

Jamesaritchie · Feb 5, 2010

Old Hack said:
I've been told by five or six agents now that they find deals for around 50% of all new clients that they take on. Once they've made that first sale then their hit-rates increase dramatically.

What's also important is how an agent works. Some have lots of clients and focus primarily on getting them home territory sales, whereas others have relatively few clients and aim to make multiple-territory sales for each and every one. One agent I was Twittering with last week told me she has fewer than 20 clients, but does her damnedest to sell their books into as many territories and formats as she can--which means her clients can get around 40 contracts for every single book that they write.

Now, that's the sort of agent I'd like. Sadly, she works in a genre different to the one I write in. Otherwise I'd pitch to her until my fingers fell off.

This sounds like a UL agent. American agents do not work this way.

skippingstone · Feb 5, 2010

OK, this discussion is way above my pay grade. What are home territory sales vs. multiple territory sales?

Old Hack · Feb 5, 2010

Jamesaritchie said:
This sounds like a UL agent. American agents do not work this way.

It's a UK agent, James. But I'm sure there are American agents who do the same for their clients. Perhaps it's a matter of genre, and you don't write in the genre concerned.

Old Hack · Feb 5, 2010

skippingstone said:
OK, this discussion is way above my pay grade. What are home territory sales vs. multiple territory sales?

A home sale is a book sold into your home territory--where you live.

Foreign rights deals are sales made to other territories--anywhere you don't live.

Subsidiary rights are audio-books, e-books, large print books, and so on.

So, a home sale for me would be a deal to publish a book in the UK; foreign rights would be anywhere else in the world, like America, Canada, Australia, and can include translation rights too, for deals in France, Germany, Spain, etc.

Is that a help?

Jamesaritchie · Feb 5, 2010

Old Hack said:
It's a UK agent, James. But I'm sure there are American agents who do the same for their clients. Perhaps it's a matter of genre, and you don't write in the genre concerned.

American agents do a thousand things for clients, but that just isn't the way the market works here.

Old Hack · Feb 6, 2010

James, you know I respect your experience and your achievements. But I have to say that that is your opinion, and your opinon runs contrary to my experience.

I'll agree that agents who work on the "few clients" model that I've described are few and far between: but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Based on the ones that I know they tend to represent the bigger hitters, which perhaps explains their success at this method: but they do still consider new writers, and very occasionally will take one on. Blessed be that writer, eh?

skippingstone · Feb 7, 2010

Thanks, all. I appreciate the home schooling on this matter.

Inkblot · Feb 8, 2010

I doubt if most agents succeed in placing half of first-time authors. Agents are now becoming equivalent to publishing houses' first readers. Getting submitted by an agent puts you ahead of the slush pile. But even when you've advanced past the slush pile you still have miles to go before you're offered a contract. I would guess that a large percentage of new authors, whether agented or not, don't make it all the way.

Old Hack · Feb 8, 2010

Inkblot, you're right that agents don't succeed in placing half of first-time authors and that the majority of writers never get published; but the agents I've spoken with about this all say that they succeed in placing about half of the authors that they take on. There is a difference.

Chris P · Feb 8, 2010

So it seems that even if you get an agent, then it's about 50-50 you'll get published: Maybe you will and maybe you won't!

Jamesaritchie · Feb 8, 2010

Old Hack said:
James, you know I respect your experience and your achievements. But I have to say that that is your opinion, and your opinon runs contrary to my experience.

I'll agree that agents who work on the "few clients" model that I've described are few and far between: but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Based on the ones that I know they tend to represent the bigger hitters, which perhaps explains their success at this method: but they do still consider new writers, and very occasionally will take one on. Blessed be that writer, eh?

It's not that. I'm only saying that the markets are different here, so the way an agent operates in selling a book is different, what an agent can or can't do here is different. We do have a fair number of agents who work of the few clients model, and they do occasionally take on a new writer.

I'm only saying that what the agent can do for a writer, and how they do it, is different with UK and US agents. The agents are the same, but the publishing model is different.

triceretops · Feb 8, 2010

I've heard the same that Old Hack has stated, in that about 50% of the stable is sold. That 50% is not the amount of manuscripts sold by the best-selling authors in that stable, but the (general) overall average. I think that's the way it was put to me. But, hey, this is also so subjective and depends on the agency, their length of business, their genre specialty, non-fiction v.s. fiction, and their direct personal connections with the editors, and whether they've had hits and a steady stream of books flowing toward selected editors for years.

For instance, I know that 20 years ago when I was with Richard Curtis, he was selling about 70% of his stable at his peak. He was established for many years and specialized in SF and some fantasy. My last agent had 28 novelists, and in his past five years of business, sold only three fiction titles. All of his major sales were non-fiction, some with movie deals. You can immediately see the chasm between these two different agents. That's what we have today. Fill in the gaps.

Tri

Agent Batting Averages

skippingstone

Bouncing Atop the Water

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

Sage

Our Lady of Parentheticals

Barbara R.

Old Hand in the Biz

Barbara R.

Old Hand in the Biz

Ken

suki

Opinionated

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

Jamesaritchie

skippingstone

Bouncing Atop the Water

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

Jamesaritchie

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

skippingstone

Bouncing Atop the Water

Inkblot

New kid, be gentle!

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

Chris P

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred

Jamesaritchie

triceretops