I'm seeing red flags. I don't care who she is. I am not saying red flags as in she isn't reputable but in her behavior and her professionalism. What I can't understand is WHY is she taking submissions if she can't get to clients until a year from now? I also would be wondering if that's true with all her potential clients or if she is just telling
you this because she doesn't value your work as much as say someone who sent her something she thought would be the next 50 Shades of Grey or something. I can't see her waiting a year if she gets a book she feels would be a hot commodity that pubs would love. Seems to me she isn't that in love with your book because if she was she'd start working on with you ASAP. I can understand her saying a week or two to get her ducks in order so she can start submitting the book to pubs but a YEAR? I mean, really? And you're supposed to sign with this woman and sit around a year getting nowhere? What would be the difference between you submitting to other agents another year, if you're gonna be waiting for her? Sounds like she might be someone who takes on anyone (no offense to you or your work) but some agents sign a bunch of authors to fill out their stable but have no intentions of giving them all adequate attention. Why does she have so many darn clients if she has to have people waiting on her for a darn year?
I don't know what kind of book you wrote but usually agents like to get on stuff fast because pub's interests changes vastly within a year. If you wrote something that is hot now it will NOT be hot in a year. So, there's that part.
Then the part that really irks me is she is being all secretive about her sales. Really? So she expects you to sign a contract agreeing to give her a percentage of your book income to represent your work, wait a year on top of that and THEN has the audacity to be coy with her sales figures? Oh, no. No reputable agent is going to refuse telling their clients or someone they are seriously thinking of representing, their sales numbers because most agents LOVE sharing their successes. They'll have it all on their websites and social media. Sounds like she hasn't done sh*t and that what she has done is less than impressive.
This isn't ideal to me. Say you sign with her and wait the year. What will stop her from dropping you or coming up with another excuse as to why she needs you to wait some more? You would have wasted a WHOLE year. Don't sign with this woman out of desperation. I can't say it enough. A bad agent is definitely worse than no agent. Trust me and many on AW can vouch for that. There have been some real nightmares about authors dealings with bad agents. That's not something you want to get involved in.
I wouldn't go with this woman. No way I am signing with an agent and waiting a damn year for her to even start submitting my work.
I don't care who she is and it seems like she is already sticking you in the bottom tier. If you let her do this now she will think she can push you aside all the time. Then the fact that she can't share her sales? That's fishy to me. She can tell you what deals she got authors concerning the publishers. How the heck is that confidential? You weren't asking for dollar amounts, you were asking for DEALS and she doesn't want to share that?
Nah, this doesn't seem like a good deal to me but it's your decision. I just see too many signs that say walk away.
ETA: Hold up. I went back and reread your post. Did you say she only had sales to SMALL presses? Oh, please. You can get a deal with a small press yourself. So you are supposed to wait a year for her to submit to small presses? Something you can do right now on your own? Oh hell, no.
You don't need this woman if that's the best she can do. I certainly don't see why her client load is so full if the best she can do are small presses. Usually that's a last resort for an agent and many won't submit to small presses because it's not worth it for them to do.