Publishing Pulse for December 23rd, 2011

New At QueryTracker:

Congratulations to our newest success stories, Joan Stradling and John Zeleznik!

Eleven agent profiles were updated this week, including those who are closing to queries for Christmas and New Year's. Please make sure you double-check every agent's website or Publisher's Marketplace page before querying. If you're a QueryTracker member and want to be notified whenever an agent or publisher is added or updates their profile, check out these instructions.

It's been a quiet week with publishing gearing down for Christmas and New Year's.

Publishing News:

Nielsen bookscan released their top 10 titles for 2011, both fiction and non-fiction. The top two fiction slots are taken by different editions of The Help. In non-fiction, you've got Heaven Is For Real, followed by the Steve Jobs biography, the combination of which probably says something clever about our culture (but in order to point it out, I'd have to be clever, so instead I'll just move along.)

Agent Rachelle Gardner is reportedly moving from Wordserve Literary Agency to Books And Such. We wish her luck in her new venture!

Around the Blogosphere:

As long as we're talking about her, Rachelle Gardner discusses rumors that B&N may not stock your book if your website links only to Amazon. 

If you're looking for the perfect drink for the holidays, how about Charles Dickens' Eggnog?

Annie Dillard on winter and wonder, and how the old world is new.

Literary Quote of the Week:

"Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures." Jessamyn West

Thanks for reading! A Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Joyous Kwanzaa to you all!

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Jane Lebak is the author of The Guardian (Thomas Nelson, 1994), Seven Archangels: Annihilation (Double-Edged Publishing, 2008) and The Boys Upstairs (MuseItUp, 2010). At Seven Angels, Four Kids, One Family, she blogs about what happens when a distracted daydreamer and a gamer geek attempt to raise four children. She is represented by the riveting Roseanne Wells of the Marianne Strong Literary Agency.