"Personal" question(s) to John Jarrold

[Scarfy]

Unless things have changed recently, John prefers submissions by email.

[GeoffNelder]

I'll take a liberty and say that John takes subs by email. He's often at FantasyCon, which is this coming weekend in Nottingham.

I'll be there on Saturday and it will be a blast to meet any one from SFF chronicles.
Geoff

[SJAB]

John's submission details are here;

JOHN JARROLD - LITERARY AGENT AND SCRIPT DOCTOR

I would add that you send your sample chapters in the bog standard submission format.

Hope to see you on Saturday, Geoff...

[darkpowers]

Thanks for that. I just thought I'd check with those may be in the know. I have emailed John with a query, but have not yet heard back, which, of course I fully understand and make no complaint about, as he is no doubt a busy man.

While I'm here again, does the choice of font matter? I like using Arial, but is it acceptable? Or should I be using Times or Courier?

[darkpowers]

An additional question:

I've done a lot of research today on the dos and don'ts of submissions to agents/publishers, and I'm a bit overwhelmed and concerned about apparent contradictions or ambiguities in what will and won't be accepted.

My main concern is about the length of samples. I gather they should be three chapters, but some sources say 10 pages, while others say three chapters or 10 pages, whichever is longer.

My sample chapters run to 87 double spaced pages, is that too much for an initial pitch?

Thanks again for all advice.

[Teresa Edgerton]

Three chapters means exactly what it says -- unless the individual agent or editor explicitly states otherwise in his or her guidelines.

New writers only get overwhelmed (and they frequently do, it's not just you) because they try to make things more complicated than they actually are, and search for hidden meanings in the guidelines.

Many publishers hate Arial, because they don't like sans-serif fonts (and Arial is one of the worst, because you can't tell the capital I's from the lower case l's), and agents want something that is ready to send out to editors. Again, check individual guidelines, but if they don't mention a preference as to font, that doesn't mean use whatever you think is prettiest or that they have some esoteric preference they aren't telling, it means stick with standard formatting, which means Courier is your safest bet. (If they do ask for something else, it will probably be Times.)

[Scarfy]

Could I just also add that when agents ask for three chapters, they expect to see the first three chapters. Not three different ones, three from the middle, three from the end, etc. The first three.

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by Scarfy

Could I just also add that when agents ask for three chapters, they expect to see the first three chapters.

They usually ask for the first three in their guidelines, but you're right: even when they don't specifically say so, whatever they ask for (three chapters, 100 pages, etc.) they want it to be the beginning part of the book. They aren't looking for a random sampling, of, say, what you think are your best chapters. They want something comprehensible, and they don't want to know how fabulous your prose is as much as they want to know whether you can tell a story. The first three chapters will give them a better idea of that than any other three, so that's what they expect to get.

[darkpowers]

Thank you, both, for putting my mind at rest. That's much appreciated.

Two more questions and then I'll get on with preparing the submission properly.

What's the best way to show a break between scenes within a chapter?

* * * * or a # or something else?

and should it be centered, indented or just be at the left margin?

and finally, author/title names in header or footer?

[GeoffNelder]

Different publishers have their own style for showing section breaks. A common method for contemporary novels is to use two line breaks.

For submissions it really doesn't matter as long as you are consistent.

Geoff

[darkpowers]

Thanks, Geoff.

and before I go completely neurotic, for agents who accept submissions by email, is it good form to send attachements or put everything: chapters, synopsis and CVs directly into the body of the email?

[GeoffNelder]

It isn't so much a matter of 'good form' as virus-conscious safety for the agents. In any case the initial query might only need your hook / brief outline in the body of the email. Check with the agent's website for submission guidelines before you send anything.

Geoff

[thaddeus6th]

Another question (I'd also like to know about the attachment issue):

I think I read here that John prefers to forego a synopsis because he likes to get a feel for the story from the sample chapters. In the draft e-mail I've written: "The book is a fantasy story set in a fictional world which is light on magic and heavier on political intrigue" and left it there because I didn't want to spoil it. Is that ok?

[SJAB]

Originally Posted by thaddeus6th

Another question (I'd also like to know about the attachment issue):

I think I read here that John prefers to forego a synopsis because he likes to get a feel for the story from the sample chapters. In the draft e-mail I've written: "The book is a fantasy story set in a fictional world which is light on magic and heavier on political intrigue" and left it there because I didn't want to spoil it. Is that ok?

Yes, that will be ok, least in MHO.

[I, Brian]

Something that may be worth bearing in mind is that agents and publishers are running a business, and a busy and demanding one at that.

Therefore consider that any professional reading your manuscript is looking for excuses to put it down, so don't give that excuse - that means proper proof reading and editing where possible to get it as polished as reasonable.

Also, there's little point fretting over the amount of work that you send, because your work either stands out or says "dump me" on the first page. Therefore it won't matter if you've sent 5 pages or 50 - no one that busy is going to push through 20 pages of badly written and unappealing work and desperately want to read the other 30 you might have sent.

If, however, your first pages are great, the agent/publisher will ask for more as required, to see how consistent the writing is.

Just my personal opinion, because I remember fretting about similar things a few years ago, and these days think it's all kind of missing the point.

Just an opinionated couple of cents.