"Personal" question(s) to John Jarrold

[lin robinson]

A fact I'm having trouble interpreting.

 

[Anarchon]

Hi, Lin, is it the FTW thing?

For The Win

 

[The Alamo Avenger]

I have a question regarding publishing rights. I recently learned that any work posted on a website that anyone can access cannot then be sold to a publisher. How strict is this 'rule'? The reason I ask is because I was completely unaware of this when I created my website. Instead of making the website the address of my name, I used the title of the book that I am currently trying to get published. I had intended to put the first few chapters up for people to sample until I had acquired an agent, etc. That is obviously out of the question. However, have I screwed myself just by having the website be the title of my book? In other words, since the website is the name of the book, would that fact alone prevent me from selling the book under that title? Or will I still be able to sell my work as long as there are no excerpts of the book on the site? Can I at least include the little two paragraph 'intro' for my book on the site, or would that prevent it from being used were the book to at some point be bought for publishing??

 

[lin robinson]

Hi, Lin, is it the FTW thing?

For The Win

Actually it was the FTW thing (means something different where I come from...the last two letters stand for "The World")

Now it's the "For The Win" thing.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I have a question regarding publishing rights. I recently learned that any work posted on a website that anyone can access cannot then be sold to a publisher. How strict is this 'rule'? The reason I ask is because I was completely unaware of this when I created my website. Instead of making the website the address of my name, I used the title of the book that I am currently trying to get published. I had intended to put the first few chapters up for people to sample until I had acquired an agent, etc. That is obviously out of the question.

You're absolutely safe putting up a few sample chapters. Things only start getting sticky when you've offered a substantial portion of the work to the public (which is what "publishing" means). And it's not a rule, it's just that once it's been published the chances of selling it elsewhere are likely to be greatly diminished. As for naming your website after your book, that isn't something you have to worry about at all. Titles aren't copyright, they need not be unique, and if you did sell your book a publisher might want to change the title anyway.

(It's a good idea to learn as much as you can about the publishing business before you start sending out your manuscript. It could save you a lot of trouble in the long run.)

 

[Troo]

Now it's the "For The Win" thing.

Hi Lin,

I can be quite meme-tastic on forums. For The Win means "Woo, yay, it's great!" (more specifically, "If I get this, I will have succeeded", but usage has slipped toward the generic). The opposite, FAIL!, means "that's awful" (a.k.a. "It fails at what it's trying to do).

Like most of these daft memes, it comes from popular culture, this time from a game show where contestants would select particular answers "for the win", i.e. to win the game.

 

[ctg]

FTW is a popular reference that you see very often in chat sessions or gaming forums. Pwnage is another. I recommend to check out the odd references from the urban dictionary.

Urban Dictionary: ftw

 

[lin robinson]

I was hoping John might have an opinion on how this steamage sub-genre (or others) are currently viewed by agents and publishers.

 

[Kissmequick]

Don't know about John, but I love steampun, sorry steamage, thing whatever. I need more!

 

[Doctor Sax]

I suspect the words "kiss", "of" and "death" might be in his reply...

 

[Kissmequick]

*sigh*

I'm being unfashionable again. Dang it.

 

[ctg]

Do go and make research on the steampunk issue, and you actually might find that the whole genre has exploded recently, with steampunk Ironman being the latest and greatest thing. There is something in the mix-up of Victorian era action (gaslight time to me) and steam-engines powering clockwork gadgets that we see in present day society, that appeals the audience.

 

[Jaqhama]

WHAT IS STEAMPUNK...
Copied from wisegeek.com;

The term 'steampunk' (variously 'steam punk') was originally a slightly sarcastic derivation from 'cyberpunk'. Cyberpunk is a flavor of science fiction that is typically set in a dystopian near-future, yet has overtones of '40s film noir. The movie Bladerunner and Neal Stephenson's book Snowcrash are quintessentially cyberpunk.
Steampunk as a descriptive term began being used in the '90s to characterize science fiction that was set in an anachronistic past, where, for instance, computers were developed in the Victorian Age. Gibson and Sterling's novel The Difference Engine is an early representative of this class of fiction. The term now embraces fiction that is not necessarily set in a variant of our past, but that has a 'feel' of Victorian sensibility about it.
When discussing the difference between science fiction and fantasy, Orson Scott Card (who writes both) has been known to remark that if it has rivets, it's science fiction. Now, of course, you don't even need the rivets, just extruded polymers. I would suggest that if it has rivets, and the rivets are highly polished brass, as are the visible gears and dials, then it's possible you are in steampunk territory. If the gentlemen all don evening clothes for dinner, you know you are. The speculative fiction of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne has been retroactively classified as steampunk by some.
Steampunk may or may not convey the noir-ish gloom of cyberpunk. Some steampunk conveys an air of Victorian innocence and optimism, but they are in the minority. Today, steampunk can even cross the boundary between fantasy and science fiction.
I would classify China Mieville's Perdido Street Station and its follow-on novels also set in the world of New Corbuzon as steampunk, although they are set on a world that humans share with other sentient species, and magic mixes with technology to create human/machine combinations. I would put this series in the steampunk category for several reasons: The people who have machine parts were altered as punishment, often for rebelling against the rulers; The ruling authority is arbitrary and unaccountable; Hydraulics, dirigibles and railroads are significant factors; Finally, Mieville's writing style evokes the sepia-tones, crowding and grime of Dickens' London.
Steampunk is a wonderful sub-genre of an already wonderful genre. If you like alternate history science fiction, and a slightly (or very) dark worldview, you will probably enjoy steampunk.

 

[Troo]

Hi John, it's all terribly quiet. Is everything tickety-boo, or are you just swamped?

 

[John Jarrold]

Just swamped, and will be back here full-time during this week!

I love steampunk - it isn't something that SF publishers will necessarily fall on with glad cries but, unlike straightforward cyberpunk, it is commercially viable in 2008. The execution will be the million-dollar question, as always!

 

[Urien]

John,

Great to see you back. I've enjoyed reading through the thread.

I noted on some of the agents references earlier and from your comments on market size, that a number of novels get published in the US but not the UK owing to the size of the American market. What is your opinion on submitting directly to US agents rather than the UK purely on the basis of probability? Alternatively would a UK agent (would you), submit for the US market even if you couldn't find a UK publisher?

Thanks

Andrew

 

[John Jarrold]

The US market can be insular - the words 'too British' still ring across the Atlantic sometimes. However, occasionally they do pick up on a British author before the UK publishers have the good taste to do so. Ian McDonald, Liz Williams, Charlie Stross and Simon R Green are examples. It isn't really a matter of probability theory - editors there receive far more submissions than their UK counterparts, so probably the same perceantage get published. 90% of the time I'd say it's best for US authors to have US agents and the same in the UK - but there are always exceptions. My US client Robert V S Redick has just had his first novel, THE RED WOLF CONSPIRACY, published in the UK by Gollancz very successfully, and Del Rey recently won a major auction between three New York publishers for US rights to it and two sequels. So it can happen, in either direction. But it doesn't happen that often.

And yes, I talk to US publishers about my clients regularly, as well as those in the UK. People like Patrick Nielsen Hayden and Dave Hartwell at Tor, Betsy Mitchell at Del Rey, Anne Groell at Bantam and Ginjer Buchanan and Susan Allison at Ace have been friends for many years, some for two decades or more. It's good to keep those conversations going. Sometimes the conversations are simultaneous with UK publishers, sometimes after speaking to those in London. And of course it can take several years of conversations and several different books before a new author gets a deal. If they do.

 

[Urien]

"Too British?" Surely my epic fantasy "Algernon Arbuthnot and the High Tea Mages" is sufficiently pan-galactic to overcome such minor trans-Atlantic quibbles.

Cheers John, great advice as usual.

 

[John Jarrold]

Just booked for the Newcon convention in Northampton this October. With Iain Banks and Ken MacLeod amongst the guests, it should be a good one!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

"Too British?" Surely my epic fantasy "Algernon Arbuthnot and the High Tea Mages" is sufficiently pan-galactic to overcome such minor trans-Atlantic quibbles.

I would certainly be eager to read that book.