Done a photoshoot for book covers before it ended she said she had 97 pictures: removing ones that cut my head off etc. My question is how many of these are likely to be good enough? I am looking for30 ideally or more. Is it just a wait and see situation? The shoot took about an hour. How many is the normal amount of pictures taken in such a shoot?

How long is a piece of string? There are too many variables.

From way back in the film days I remember reading a great quote about the difference between a pro and amateur photographer. An amateur shoots 36 pictures and expects 35 to be great, a pro hopes one meets the need.

I expect a lot of good and a couple very good and a couple of winners

I'm generally looking for 3-5 good images from a shoot.

and I pretty much never shoot 100 images.
if I'm shooting digital it's maybe 50-60 shots, 
film or polaroid, maybe 20.

Everyone's shooting style is different,
and what you are looking for in a shoot makes a difference.

Luckily there are a lot of ropey/crappy./bad book covers in nonfiction so hopefully mine will compare favourably: I haven't seen them yet. It gets worse. At the time had a larger than normal chance of an attack from extremists so mind was pretty much f#cked so did not emote a lot so pretty much all with same facial expression: but assuming this as do not have the photos back yet: I am waiting for them to be processed. Oh shit she is waiting for the money I sent to clear so that the payment cannot be reversed. She seems above board she does wedding photographs as well as actors headshots etc.. I am sure it will just take her a while for retouching and will have other clients. From what I saw on camera they looked a big improvement on the last ones done last year. But I need book covers that are acceptable standard not all as work of art although I have heard of people using family snaps as book covers. Plus I am clothed many pictures of people that sell images for book covers end up on lots of covers and almost always show them only partially clothed. Think books would sell far less well if they all had images of partially clothed authors on them: most authors don't look great although some do. But also my books are not about love or sex.

So I take it its normal to wait w while for pictures?

Yes. How long will be in the contract you signed to get a professional to do your pictures. Maybe read that.

I have them: 125 of them. Some great ones too and lots of good ones.

In my days shooting film, I would hope for 3-4 winners in a roll of 36 frames. 20 or so years seemed to prove that percentage out for me.

In the age of digital, it's easier to "cheat." You check the last image shot on the camera's monitor and adjust lighting, pose, angle, etc. If I shoot 250-300 images with a model, I fully expect to be able to end up with 30-40 final images.

And give thanks for the money saved from processing and darkroom time. Now, it's just Photoshop time to consider.

Depending on the project, I expect to be happy with 1-3% of the total number of photos taken to be deliverable.