"Personal" question(s) to John Jarrold

I'll be offline from Friday for about four weeks. Moving house and waiitng for BT to reconnect the phoneline. They have at least a three-week waiting list. Sigh...
 
John Jarrold said:
I'll be offline from Friday for about four weeks. Moving house and waiitng for BT to reconnect the phoneline. They have at least a three-week waiting list. Sigh...
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Hi John -- Good luck with the house move. Hope your book collection in particular survives intact (you must have accumulated an impressive one over the years). I was hoping to bump into you at Fantasycon but failed to do so -- which surprised me... I was in the bar quite a lot! :) Did you go in the end?
 
Best of luck with the move, John - it was mentioned to me at Fantasycon that the house move hadn't gone as smoothly as it should have, so I sincerely hope that everything is going to start falling into place now. :)
 
Didn't make Fantasycon because of the move, sadly, but thanks for the good wishes. Definitely moving on Saturday, should be back online around October 19th ...
 
I can't believe that a top publisher is not only posting on this forum, but is also answering every question with consideration. I will be published one day, I have no doubts about that fact. Be funny getting a rejection letter from you. I would frame it. :)

Thanks mate for enlightening our community.

PS That was not arrogance, that was a poor truth. I will never be published.
 
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How likely is a publisher to pick up a small press, prev. published novel? I assume when small press books make the best sellers lists, big time pubs pick 'em up all the time, but what about books with a modest showing?
 
Very seldom. For every small press novel that is picked up, over 100 aren't. We can all give examples, but do think about those odds...and very, VERY few small press novels make any sort of list that matters to a mainstream publisher.
 
Know of, but don't know personally. She was taken on in the UK by Orbit after I left to join Random House in 1992.
 
Well, after two months of house and internet related horrors (look at my Live Journal or MySpace blogs for details) I'm back. I'll be catching up over the weekend.
 
Nice to see you back on the boards, and hope you are "recovering" from the nightmare move.
 
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Hi John, thanks for taking the time to visit with us here. On an earlier thread you mentionioned that all publishers occassionally pass on novels that turn out to be big sellers elsewhere. Would you care to divulge the biggest novel you personally passed on?
 
Like every editor I know on both sides of the Atlantic, I've sometimes passed on authors who have been published successfully elsewhere, or been outbid in an auction. I think it's invidous to mention the former specifically, but I was the underbidder (I came second) in the UK auction for George R R Martin's original SONG OF ICE AND FIRE trilogy ten years ago, when I worked with Random House. That was for a great deal of money!
 
Wow, Martin is one of my favorites and very popular here in general. Sorry to put you in an awkward position so thanks for playing along. I just think it's interesting to hear about the various "what if" scenerios such as the chap who left the Beatles just before they hit it big, the guy who traded his half in Dominos pizza for an old VW, Tom Selleck turning down the role of Indiana Jones, etc.
 
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