It’s always the highlight of our year to pause and take stock of our clients’ amazing accomplishments. While we’re highlighting milestones, bestsellers, awards, and recognition from 2025, we cannot overstate our pride in our entire JGLM list, and our gratitude that each and every one of our creators have entrusted our agency with their work.
DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN DEALS
Our clients’ work generated nearly 200 deals across foreign, domestic, audio, film, and other subsidiary rights, including over 122 foreign licenses and dozens of deals closed in the UK and Australia alone.
We saw some exciting milestones for our authors in the foreign market:
Jesse Q. Sutanto’s Vera Wong series is now being published in 20 languages
Tamsen Fadal’s How to Menopause quickly racked up sales in 8 territories after making its first foreign deal in 2025
Britney Lewis’s Blood Moon has also hit 8 languages
Marissa Meyer’s The House Saphir is now licensed in 11 languages; the forthcoming The Escape Game, written with Tamara Moss, is at 7 languages and counting
Jennifer Thorne’s Diavola is now translated into 6 languages
FILM, TV, AND AUDIO
We were thrilled to see the anime adaptation of Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan hit Netflix this summer, following the release of Uglies on Netflix in September 2024
This year saw the long-awaited greenlight to the animated feature film adaptation of Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles series, currently slated for release in November 2028 from Locksmith Animation and Warner Brothers Studios
We closed over a dozen audio deals this year. Highlights include an eight-book deal with Scholastic Audio for Jenni and Matt Holm’s Sunny graphic novel series; a thrilling five-way auction for rights to A Fate Worse Than Drowning by Sarah L. Hawthorn, won by Audible; and a three-book deal with Blackstone to release beloved backlist titles by Rosina Lippi — including her award-winning debut Homestead — in audio for the first time
BESTSELLERS
Our books hit multiple lists this year at the national, international, and regional levels. As an agency, we had our eighth #1 New York Times bestseller this year, and hit a total of 62 New York Times bestsellers and 46 Indie bestsellers
Britney S. Lewis’s Blood Moon was an instant #1 New York Times bestseller, and hit the IndieBound list at #3, and was a USA Today bestseller
Marissa Meyer’s The House Saphir was an instant New York Times bestseller, hitting the list at #4. Saphir was also a #1 IndieBound bestseller and hit the Publishers Weekly bestseller list
Tamsen Fadal’s How to Menopause was an instant New York Times bestseller, hitting the list at #3; it also hit the Indie, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today lists
Jesse Q Sutanto’s Worth Fighting For hit the USA Today list
Andrea Eames’ A Harvest of Hearts was a Sunday Times bestseller
Jennifer L. Holm’s Outside was a Southern California bestseller
Colin Woodard’s Nations Apart was a #1 Maine Sunday Telegram bestseller and a Portland Press Herald bestseller
Alda P. Dobbs’s The Giving Flower was a Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association bestseller
AWARDS, NOMINATIONS, AND STARRED REVIEWS
Our clients and books were honored with a number of awards and nominations this year:
Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q Sutanto was a Readers’ Favorite Mystery/Thriller finalist at the Goodreads Choice Awards; The House Saphir by Marissa Meyer made the longlist for Readers’ Favorite YA Fantasy & Science Fiction
Alison Goodman’s The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin was one of only 69 titles nominated for the prestigious Dublin Literary Award, known as the “richest prize in literature”
Tamsen Fadal, bestselling author of How to Menopause won the Silver Medal in the Self-Improvement Category at the Signal Awards for her hit podcast, The Tamsen Show
Marissa Meyer’s latest graphic novel, We Could Be Magic, illustrated by Joelle Murray, was named one of Operation Literacy’s Teen Readers’ Choice Award finalists
They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran was shortlisted for the B&N Children’s & YA Book Award and won the Libro Bookseller’s Choice award for its audiobook, read by Nhi Do
A Cruel Thirst by Angela Montoya won the Gold Medal for Best Young Adult Romance from the International Latino Book Awards
The German edition of Henry Gee’s The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire was longlisted for the Austrian Science Book of the Year Award and was named a Top 10 Nonfiction title of the year by Deutschlandfunk Kultur
Our clients received 31 starred trade reviews this year across 26 individual titles; we’re proud to highlight the following titles that received multiple starred reviews:
A Touch of Blood by Sajni Patel
Unhallowed Halls by Lili Wilkinson
The House Saphir by Marissa Meyer
Hollow by Taylor Grothe
They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran
A Gentleman’s Gentleman by TJ Alexander
We also saw our books on a variety of year-end, best-of, editor’s picks, and honor lists for 2025:
2025 Junior Library Guild Selections
School Spirits by Charlotte Gunnufson, illustrated by Rebecca Crane
The House Saphir by Marissa Meyer
Dad Rock Dragon Quest by Joan Reardon
You and Me and the Land of Lost Things by Andy Griffiths, illustrated by Bill Hope
Grandpere’s Ghost Swamp by Rachel M. Marsh
Indie Next Picks
Outside by Jennifer L. Holm
The House Saphir by Marissa Meyer
Tenderly, I am Devoured by Lyndall Clipstone
Blood Moon by Britney S. Lewis
Library Journal Best of the Year
The Traitor of Sherwood Forest by Amy S. Kaufman
School Library Journal Best of the Year
Dad Rock Dragon Quest by Joan Reardon
The House Saphir by Marissa Meyer
Tear This Down by Barbara Dee (Teen Librarian Toolbox Selection)
Booklist Editors Choice
They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran
Publishers Weekly Best of the Year
A Gentleman’s Gentleman by TJ Alexander
Kirkus Best of the Year
Unhallowed Halls by Lili Wilkinson
Love at Full Tilt by Jenny L. Howe
Outside by Jennifer L. Howe
Bird of a Thousand Stories by Kiyash Monsef
NPR Best of 2025
They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran
New York Times Notable Books
A Gentleman’s Gentleman by TJ Alexander
Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto (A Best Mystery Novel of 2025)
Next Big Ideas Club
Nations Apart by Colin Woodard (November 2025 Pick)
Decline and Fall of the Human Empire (Best Science Book Selection for 2025)
LibraryReads
Lauryn Harper Falls Apart by Shauna Robinson
Library Reads Hall of Fame – Shauna Robinson
New York Public Library Best of 2025
Dad Rock Dragon Quest by Joan Reardon
Apple Books
Next Time Will Be Our Turn by Jesse Q Sutanto (Best Books of November 2025)
Amazon Best Book of the Year
Outside by Jennifer L. Holm (Ages 9-12)
Chicago Public Library’s Best Books of 2025
If I Could Go Back by Briana Johnson
We Could Be Magic by Marissa Meyer
Financial Times Best Books of 2025
Doctored by Charles Piller (Health and Wellness)
Forbes Best Higher Education Books of 2025
Doctored by Charles Piller
Reactor Magazine‘s Notable YA Books of 2025
Twin Tides by Hien Nguyen (Dark Fantasy)
Reading Middle Grade Best Books of the Year
We Could Be Magic by Marissa Meyer
Common Sense Media Best Books of the Year
We Could Be Magic by Marissa Meyer (Tweens)
Texas Library Association’s Maverick Graphic Novel Reading List
We Could Be Magic by Marissa Meyer
NSTA- CBC 2026 Best STEM Books
Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb: Young Readers Edition of AMERICAN PROMETHEUS: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, adapted by Eric Singer
Anderson’s Bookshop Mock Newbery List
Outside by Jennifer L. Holm
Tear This Down by Barbara Dee
Canadian Children’s Book Center Best Book of the Year
You Are Home by Bex Tobin Fine
Though we can never list every single client accomplishment or milestone, some highlights of 2025 include:
Britney S. Lewis’s exciting journey to becoming a #1 New York Times bestseller with Blood Moon, becoming Page Street Publishing’s second-ever New York Times bestseller, and the first YA author and book in the history of the press to hit the list at #1
We’re always thrilled to celebrate debuts of all kinds: Kate Maupin’s debut novel Dead Batteries sold to Amy Einhorn at Crown in an exciting auction; award-winning YA and middle grade author Aden Polydoros sold his debut adult horror novel, You Should Have Been Home Now, to Titan Books
We saw Tamsen Fadal’s global movement and advocacy for menopause grow by leaps and bounds this year, alongside the release of her bestselling book How to Menopause
We had two exciting acquisitions under Mindy Kaling’s Book Studio list at Amazon: Lauren Ho’s Two Lives With You and Jesse Q Sutanto’s Read Between the Lies
Kirby Larson and Mary Nethery, the New York Times-bestselling authors of Nubs (with Brian Dennis) and Two Bobbies, will return with 23 Dogs and 1 Cat, an adorable new picture book forthcoming from Bloomsbury, based on the inspiring true story of a Virginia classroom’s letter-writing campaign to find forever homes for local rescue animals
Life is a Sacred Text, the hugely successful website and newsletter by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg that uses ancient stories to help illuminate our lives and to help us to see ourselves and the moment in which we live more clearly, will be expanded and updated into a book slated for release in 2027
We did a deal for Terra Infirma, an essential new work of nonfiction grappling with the instability of our current moment from Alissa Quart, the Executive Director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and author of Squeezed and Bootstrapped
With the release of The House Saphir, Marissa Meyer achieved the milestone of her 11th individual title to become a New York Times bestseller
We formally announced a hotly-anticipated new novel from the beloved Jaclyn Moriarty; Time Travel for Beginners sold in Australia and the UK, and buzz has been steadily growing
We recently announced that middle grade icon Barbara Dee will publish her next two middle grade novels with Scholastic, starting with Nothing to See Here in fall 2026
2026 will see the publication of at least 65 new client titles on the JGLM list. We’re thrilled to be seeing books from exciting debuts and new books from longtime favorite authors. Keep an eye on our website to see what we have coming up in Winter 2026 and beyond.
It continues to be our goal to not just help shepherd important books into the world, but to be involved in the fight to get those books into the hands of readers who need them, and to keep them on shelves amidst escalating challenges. This year, we’re proud to make donations to Authors Against Book Bans and Every Child a Reader (as members of their Literary Agent Circle of Sponsors), to directly support the freedom to read. We are members of AABB’s companion organization, Publishing Professionals Against Book Bans, and we stand alongside our authors and publishing colleagues in the fight against censorship.
We wish everyone health, peace, and happiness this holiday season.
Jill, Denise, Katelyn & Sam