Mary Lindsey's blog offers these interesting (though unsourced) tidbits: - Less than 1% of writers with a complete novel find an agent to represent them
- None in the 1% is guaranteed a book in print
- Only 60% of agented books sell
She also examines a rejection she has received. It's good stuff. Worth clicking over for a read.
3 comments:
okay someone just said they have "great" news and that they have learned they are in the "editorial review process" at a lit journal.
Um...isn't that just what it's called when they evaluate your submission? Or does that really imply you've made it past a prelim hurdle??
Statistics like that, even if true, are totally meaningless. All books are not created equal, so not all books have a 1/100 chance.
Many books have a 1/1,000,000 chance of ever getting published, because the writer can't write anything that someone else would want to read.
A truly good, solid, original book by an intelligent, well-read writer probably has something like a 1/4 or 50-50 chance of being published.
It's not a crap shoot. Published writers aren't "lucky." If you put in the work time, read a lot, learn the business, and have good judgement, there's no reason you can't publish a book.
Thanks for the kind words about my blog.
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