Back in 2012, I finally had a middle grade manuscript I felt really solid about. This was going to be the book that would make all of my publishing dreams come true. Except I needed an agent, right? I’d been to enough SCBWI conferences and read enough craft books, industry blogs and author and editor tweets to know that. But somewhere between the enormous list of agents available via industry sources and the handful of agents I followed on social, and the even smaller handful of agents I’d heard about from my writing friends, I had a problem. How would I pick the agent who was right for me and my book? How would I avoid a schmagent and find an agent who knows–and has actually sold–middle grade books?

Everyone has their own process for doing this, and a quick Google search will net you dozens of methods. But one of the better resources I found is Publisher’s Weekly Children’s Bookshelf e-newsletter. Along with helpful updates about the children’s publishing industry, there’s a section at the bottom of each newsletter called the Rights Report. Jackpot.

The Rights Report is a curated list of recent children’s book deals, everything from picture books to young adult. While it’s not a complete list of all book deals (and Publisher’s Weekly doesn’t disclose how they choose which deals to report), it’s an extremely helpful resource for a querying author. What’s selling, who’s buying it, who sold it–there’s a lot to take in.

So in September 2012, I started tracking middle grade book deals. When an issue of Children’s Bookshelf arrived in my inbox, I’d open up my spreadsheet and record:

• Book title
• Number of books sold (e.g., multi-book deal or series)
• Author, and note if the person was identified as a debut author
• Genre (identified to the best of my ability, based on what was included in the description)
• Agent and agency
• Editor and publishing house
• Date of e-newsletter issue

Over time, I not only gathered a list of agents who I wanted to query, but editors who I hoped to submit a manuscript to someday.

Even after I signed with my agent, I still kept up the spreadsheet. I’m a data nerd as well as a word nerd, and it’s been interesting to watch how the industry has changed. In the 5+ years* I’ve kept track, I’ve recorded 817 middle grade book deals. And even though I love a good spreadsheet, I was curious to see how the data mapped out visually so I made an infographic.**

A few things that stood out to me:

• Most authors had agents–whether they were debuts or not
• The big publishing houses were heavily represented (no surprise)
• Contemporary and fantasy/sci fi were the most popular genres

*No records kept from 10/2015 – May 2016