"Personal" question(s) to John Jarrold

First, I just wanted to say thanks to (a) everybody who posted really good, thoughtful questions, and (b) John who took the time to answer these questions. The responses have overall been a real comfort - usually reinforcing what I already had heard about how hard it is to break out in the industry. The 100K+ word bit has me displeased, but well, what can you do?

Second, I have a question. Now, I am quite a long way off from being published (one, I'm in my early twenties, and two, I don't have anything completed that I would feel comfortable sending out), but this is something that's been milling around in my head. Pseudonyms.

My last name, far as I can see, is probably unpublishable. It's Polish, and there's a random J in there that you just don't pronounce, and while it's not as bad as some of my extended family's last names, it's still quite a mouthful (eyeful?).

What is (a) your opinion on and (b) the industry standard on authors with pseudonyms? If you step forward with one, is that a red flag? If you do, should you stipulate that it's because your name is just unfriendly to the eye? Should you not even bother and let the publisher decide?

Thanks <3
 
Just mention it in your covering letter. If the book is special enough, publishers will have no problem coming up with a solution!
 
I've published quite of bit of writing under one nom du mud or another. Some of these situations I shared with the publications, other times not.

But I'd say if you have a pseudonym in mind, to put it in the byline of the MS under the title, perhaps in quotes. Your real name up at upper left. This makes it clear what you are doing, I'd say, without any hint of conning the publication.

And as John says, the publisher will make their ideas clear.

If you are doing a REAL blind pseudonym, don't forget you have to have figured out some way to cash the check.
 
On figures...

I have some time ago, come to the conclusion that it is extremely hard to get to the exact sales figures of books. Even for say Stephen King, GRR Martin, Robert Jordan or whatever writer that should not worry about them turning out too bad. It's like publishers fear figures. You'll always have lists who rank the books, but never how much of them were sold.
Is there a way to get to them, rather than guess by using amazon sales figures? I would find it interesting and fun to know how many LOTR novels are out there for example.

And the same goes for word counts. You have been helpful in the past, giving people advice on their word counts, but is there an easy accessible source that shows how many words a novel boosts?

I know that the industry probably will do effort to keep people in the dark, since they can turn the tide more easily when people are not aware that a novel didn't sell at all, but I would find it interesting to dodge them.
 
There are ways to check inside the industry, but you really have to be involved to get a complete sales figure. However, for the biggest sellers of any year, they are mentioned in the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook. And no, there are no figures on word counts. Just count the words on an average page of the book that interests you , then multiply by the page count! No shortcut.
 
You can check on Amazon with Search inside enabled, that gives you a sample page and number of pages. It also list sales rank.
 
A large number of agents that accept email submissions only reply if interested. While I understand why an agent would not accept an email submission, it baffles my why an agent would accept an email submission but refuse to reply to all legitimate submissions. (I use the phrase 'legitimate submissions' to rule out some instances where it would be understandable, like an author who has been rejected before resending a new query, etc.)

Email is free, and replying with a form letter to an email submission should beat replying via SASE every time. It is a matter of hitting the reply button, type ctrl-v to paste your form letter, and hitting send.

I also think the majority of authors would like to see any reply even if it is a form letter rejection over seeing no reply at all. (I believe a popular agent blog -- perhaps miss snarks before she closed down but it could have been another -- did a poll and this was the preference.)

My questions:

Do you reply to all (legitimate) email submissions?

Why do you think many agents do not reply to them?

Having never worked in an agency I wouldn't presume to judge their practices, but I have always been curious on this particular point.
 
Sounds like a sneaky way of discouraging email submissions.

I'd rather deal with an agent who said what he/she wanted outright: no email submissions and send an SASE.
 
Me too. But I know some agents say they accept email submissions and don't mention that they don't reply unless interested. At least if they mention it the writer has some expectations -- even if I don't agree with that either since the writer has no way of knowing if their query ever even arrived. I think not replying invites re-queries.

But I am curious to hear the agent side. If I had to guess I would put my money on email submissions generating a lot more submissions than snail mail (it's much easier for the writer and no cost to them), but that's just a guess.
 
I certainly intend to reply to all submissions - but I'll bet you there are at least half-a-dozen authors who I've missed, and who believe I'm a twit (or something stronger), because things do sometimes slip through cracks. But to answer your question: yes, if an agent accepts e-mail submissions (I receive over 90% of my submissions by e-mail), then they should reply.

However an agent accepts submission, they should reply.
 
Thanks John, that is refreshing to hear. Certainly, some submissions will get lost in transit -- and, for that matter, some replies will get lost getting back to the author (writers should always check their spam filter before clearing it out!).
 
good evening everybody

i have a question for you John, a few years ago i watched the BBC documentary on the new author Sheila Quigley who had been taken on by Darley Anderson. It followed her through the journey of her first book coming out and all the ups and downs that go with that. Her publisher gave her a £300,000 advance and my question is how do the advances work?, I know that the author receives a royalty per book,I think its about £2 isnt it?. So presumably the first 150,000 books sold the publisher would hang onto the royalty payment till he has got his money back.Is that the way it works?.

I look forward to your reply
cheers gary
 
An advance is paid in sections. Say it's £10,000 (much more common than £300,000). You might get one-third when the contract is signed, then one-third when the book is published as a hardback, then the final third when the book is published as a paperback. It's an advance 'against royalties', so when the author's royalty percentages of sales revenue (usually something like 10% of cover price on the hardback and 7.5% of cover price on the paperback, plus some other detailed royalties for overseas markets and books sold at very high discounts) have earned back the £10,000, then they receive royalties. It's not a matter of 'holding back' - the author's 'advance' is just that, the publisher pays it before it is earned.

Many, many books never earn back their initial advance.
 
Thanks for that John, why would Sheila Quigley warrant such a high advance, no disrespect to her but I tried to read her first book and I couldnt get into it, maybe it was me. Also what is considered a best seller, how many books?, 100,000 or 500,000.

Regards Gary
 
garycompton said:
Thanks for that John, why would Sheila Quigley warrant such a high advance, no disrespect to her but I tried to read her first book and I couldnt get into it, maybe it was me. Also what is considered a best seller, how many books?, 100,000 or 500,000.

Regards Gary
Click to expand...

I know this is a question for John, but I'll give my take and then he can agree/disagree.

A lot of times the publishers base an advance not only on how well the book is, but how marketable the book subject matter and the author is. For example, in the current market, a self help book would earn a fairly low advance (which is why most self help gurus self publish and run meeting things), a new author in sci/fan would get a lower advance than a new author in the current religious fiction books, and so forth and so on.

Its the publisher's determining the future marketability of a book and how well it will sell.
 
Yes, the initial sales figures (on which an advance is often based) will be discussed in a publishing meeting with the sales and marketing directors, the senior editors and the managing director. Most books that go for large advances (some after auctions, of course) get a response from some people saying 'But I didn't like it', which isn't important. What's important is how many people DO like it and recommend it to their friends...

Publishing is a subjective business on one level, so no individual should ever expect their personal taste to be that of the public. As Dustingirl says, there are many factors that inform the publishers' decision on the level of advance they offer.
 
Just to let everyone know that I'll be moving house next Tuesday/Wednesday (to Lincoln) and I''ll probably be offline for ten days.

Cheers!

JJ
 
John Jarrold said:
Just to let everyone know that I'll be moving house next Tuesday/Wednesday (to Lincoln) and I''ll probably be offline for ten days.

Cheers!

JJ
Click to expand...

Hope everything goes well for you, John, and that the weather decides to be fine for a change.
 
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