"Personal" question(s) to John Jarrold

[John Jarrold]

Nine times out of ten I'd say establish yourself FULLY in one genre - that means five or six books published and selling well - before thinking about anything else. Publishers do not, as a rule, like authors who write in more than one genre. Some agents deal with all areas of the market, of course. Iain Banks is a one-off, and it's important to look at the market as a whole, not just say 'Oh, it works for THAT writer, so I can do it'. It's even difficult to get the book trade to take an SF author who switches to Fantasy seriously, let alone someone writing SF and lit-fic. Yes, I know Richard Morgan is presently writing Fantasy! Look at the genre as a whole.

Personally, I want to deal with SF or Fantasy novelists who are determined to write within their genre and produce at least one commercial novel a year.

[John Jarrold]

Originally Posted by ctg

Of course, but what I meant was that you earlier this year said that the publishers are looking for ready-to-be-published books rather than the ones that are polished to shine, but might have still be a bit rough in places.

The more polished, the better.

[J-WO]

Something I've always been curious about- is there a 'One strike and your out policy' to debut novelists, generally speaking?

What I mean is, if you had a two book deal, say, and you delivered them on time and your publishers liked them but they bombed with the public and you got dropped, would that be a black mark in the industry's eyes?
Or would another publishing house see all that experience as a positive?

[Urien]

Hi John,

Welcome back. What's the appropriate length of a synopsis for a novel? I've read somewhat contradictory information; the bulk of it seems to be towards 1-3 pages. Thanks for your advice.

[John Jarrold]

Originally Posted by J-WO

Something I've always been curious about- is there a 'One strike and your out policy' to debut novelists, generally speaking?

What I mean is, if you had a two book deal, say, and you delivered them on time and your publishers liked them but they bombed with the public and you got dropped, would that be a black mark in the industry's eyes?
Or would another publishing house see all that experience as a positive?

That is definitely a problem. It doesn't necesarily mean your career is over, but look at it this way: If W H Smiths have seen two or three books by an author that have been well published fail to catch the public's imagination, why would they take a chance on another book, just because it came from a different publisher? They are a commercial business, so they need a number of good reasons to do so - which can be any number of things, such as greater enthusiasm, MUCH better covers, a large marketing spend and a move to a diferent area...but the majority of times, when the public has spoken by not opening their wallets it's difficult to get the book chains to take the author on in the future. Publishers know that, so they are exceedingly careful about offering a deal to an author in that situation. And this is far more the case than it was twenty years ago. However, I repeat what I always say: there are no absolute templates. It does happen.

[John Jarrold]

Originally Posted by Urien

Hi John,

Welcome back. What's the appropriate length of a synopsis for a novel? I've read somewhat contradictory information; the bulk of it seems to be towards 1-3 pages. Thanks for your advice.

You should have seen many, many posts about this and the one I agree with says: ask, if the information isn't on the publisher or agent's website. Give them what they ask for.

I don't want to see a synopsis, personally, just the first six chapters. Thus, synoposes aren't mentioned in my website's submission guidelines.

[John Jarrold]

FYI, I'm away from Thursday to next Tuesday.

[J-WO]

Do you think there is anything to be said for an aspiring novelist building a web page (demonstrating their wares, so to speak)? Or would that be time better spent just cracking on with their art?

I suspect the latter but I'm not exactly 'state of the art'. (Which, I happened to spot the other day, is a story collection dedicated to you. Did you help get it published or something?)

[thaddeus6th]

hey John,

is it ok for the six chapters to be normally spaced, or should they be double-spaced?

Also, apart from the obvious "Hello, I'm Thaddeus, here's my book, hope you like it" bit is anything else required in the e-mail? Thanks

[Tirellan]

Sample chapters are usually double-spaced

[Anne Lyle]

Originally Posted by J-WO

Do you think there is anything to be said for an aspiring novelist building a web page (demonstrating their wares, so to speak)? Or would that be time better spent just cracking on with their art?

I shall be cheeky and answer this one - maybe John will disagree

These days, a writer pretty much has to have some kind of web presence, and putting up your site only days or weeks before your first book is published is not sufficient. I have a website that's been around long enough that it's the top hit for my name on Google; I also have accounts on FaceBook and Twitter*, and my writers' group has a website and a FaceBook fan page. Of course it helps that I'm a web developer by trade!

Fortunately, these days you don't need either web skillz or big money to have a web presence. A writing-focused blog on Blogspot or Wordpress is a great place to start - there are plenty of professionally designed templates to choose from, so you can be up and running in a matter of minutes. Don't worry if people don't flock to your blog immediately - the key thing is to get some content up there and get into the habit of blogging about your writing. Post progress reports, thoughts about the writing process, news, reviews of other people's books - anything that's relevant to your life as an aspiring writer. The more content you can add that might be of interest to other people, the better - I've found a lot of cool stuff via the blogs I visit regularly. Don't post your actual writing, however, unless it's something you don't plan on selling. A freebie short story or two is OK, but whilst some people have famously converted online postings into print sales, it's still a rarity.

It's easy to get sucked into social media, and it can be as big a time-waster as, say, games! It might help if you think of it as "work" and set aside some time to do it, perhaps when you know you are not going to be able to focus on writing your fiction (I find that early evenings when I get home from my day-job are a good time to chill out online). There are plenty of resources for the newcomer to networking and social media - mashable.com is a good place to start.

Hope this helps!

* twitter.com/annelyle

[darkpowers]

Is it best to approach an agent/publisher with a proposal for a one-off, stand alone novel, or one which could be followed by sequels?

The novel I'm co-writing is self contained and reaches a conclusion, but it does have scope to lead to follow ups or to even be the first part of a trilogy.

Is it wise to approach an agent/publisher with a proposal for a trilogy, or would that put them off when dealing with new writers?

[SJAB]

Originally Posted by darkpowers

Is it best to approach an agent/publisher with a proposal for a one-off, stand alone novel, or one which could be followed by sequels?

The novel I'm co-writing is self contained and reaches a conclusion, but it does have scope to lead to follow ups or to even be the first part of a trilogy.

Is it wise to approach an agent/publisher with a proposal for a trilogy, or would that put them off when dealing with new writers?

From personal experience my novel was a stand-alone, but did have the prospect of other stories set in the same time frame with the same cast of characters.

I think the book you present has to be the best you can produce, a stonkingly good story that catches the eye of the agent/publisher. You need to show them that you are not a "one trick" pony, that you can produce good quality work. Even if you sell a trilogy, the third, or even the second book might not make it into print. A lot depends on sales, and other factors. And this happens to established mid list authors, not just your newbies.

An agent will be looking for a long term relationship, selling you as a brand, who produces good, high quality stories. So having a trilogy up your sleeve can't do any harm, but you have to sell the first book, first. So having an "end" is a good thing.

[darkpowers]

Originally Posted by SJAB

From personal experience my novel was a stand-alone, but did have the prospect of other stories set in the same time frame with the same cast of characters.

I think the book you present has to be the best you can produce, a stonkingly good story that catches the eye of the agent/publisher. You need to show them that you are not a "one trick" pony, that you can produce good quality work. Even if you sell a trilogy, the third, or even the second book might not make it into print. A lot depends on sales, and other factors. And this happens to established mid list authors, not just your newbies.

An agent will be looking for a long term relationship, selling you as a brand, who produces good, high quality stories. So having a trilogy up your sleeve can't do any harm, but you have to sell the first book, first. So having an "end" is a good thing.

Thank you.

[darkpowers]

Is John Jarrold taking submissions by post or email at the moment?