"Personal" question(s) to John Jarrold

okay just to get back on topic:

John, I was wondering, having to post on chronicles and be a script doctor and literary agent seems just so much to me. Do you get more manuscripts year after year? Is there an increase in the Slush pile or do both the good manuscripts and the horrible rise at a certain rate or do they stay the same?
 
I receive around thirty submissions to the agency every week - 28 of them, on average, can be turned down after reading fewer than then pages, so that doesn't take long (that's true of the material received by any agent or editor). As I do more deals with publishers, that leads to more work on behalf of each published client, of course. And as more clients are published, so I see more very good typescripts - but they have to be really special for me to take them further.

The editing work as a script doctor and doing some freelance work for publishers is great, because I love editing books. Right now, the agency makes up around 50% of my income - but I hope that, at some point in the future, I will be able to spend all my time on it. However, I can't see that happening in the next three years, at least, simply in terms of paying the bills, etc!
 
And it should be said that publishing really is a way of life, not just a job you pick up at 9 and put down at 5, Monday to Friday. It's on your mind all the time. Even when I had a few days off for the birthday last weekend, I met people from an SF magazine to talk about agency clients and also had lunch with long-time SF cover artist Jim Burns. Jim's a mate, but we talked business part of the time (my ex-partner, Nancy, who was also there for lunch with Jim and his wife, used to be a senior editor with HarperCollins and Random House, and she is probably editing a book for Bantam even as I type).

So it isn't really a matter of how much work you can fit into the business day - as you can see, 10 p.m. can still be part of that day! That's just how real, grown-up publishing works. Not to mention the paper and pencil by the bed, because I usually wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning with something I need to do regarding the agency or editing on my mind. I sometimes sleep on my editorial thoughts and suggestions before typing them up and e-mailing them to the author, since others often occur overnight.
 
Wow ... that makes my 4 hours of guitar-teaching a night seem pretty pathetic!

Maybe you should book a holiday with that place from Total Recall ... Get away from it all, without actually getting away!
 
It never works, David. I just spent two weeks in Japan fretting about Pantechnicon 'cause I didn't have a laptop with me and couldn't work on it while away... Not as relaxing a holiday as it could've been :eek:
 
Did you have long hair and a flowery shirt at the time John:)

Anyway a question - do you know what the breakdown of sales of books is between the internet (Amazon etc) and the traditional book stores. Is it about 50/50
 
gary compton said:
Did you have long hair and a flowery shirt at the time John:)

Part of the time!

Anyway a question - do you know what the breakdown of sales of books is between the internet (Amazon etc) and the traditional book stores. Is it about 50/50
Click to expand...

No, traditional booksellers still account for well over 70% of sales overall, amazon and other online outlets maybe 25%, according to an old chum who is the sales director of a UK publishing company.
 
In the publishing industry in 2008, how easy would it be for a new publisher getting his foot in the door? - ie. Getting his book/books into the bookshops, is it a closed shop or could it be done.

Would it be the case of contacting the sales directors of the big chains - whats the procedure John?

Presumably all the current publishers had to start somewhere and build on their sucesses.
 
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Major publishers have long histories, and many of them are multi-nationals, Gary. For a one-man band it's entirely different than for them - mostly WHS, Waterstones, etc, won't stock a small publisher and much of the selling is done personally, in the local area, at first, and now by websites. I know one publisher who has been in business for ten years, who has just got his first deal with Waterstones - WHS still won't stock him.

Most of the older UK publishers, like Hodder, Pan, Jonathan Cape, etc., are now owned by far bigger conglomerates because they could no longer exist, financially, alone. And anyone wanting to break in as more than a small press needs millions of pounds in venture capital behind them, as well as a team of sales, marketing and editorial staff who know the business thoroughly. And to be honest, no one who does not have years of experience in publishing should even consider starting up a company. It's a very specialised industry.
 
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Thanks John, thats what I thought. As you have probably gathered I want to self publish but only when I think and others agree that the book is good enough - God knows when that will be we will have to wait and see.

I'll be honest my target is 10,000 sales in first two years and sensibly I am building up the things I need to publish ie, book cover, printer, distribution and a marketing plan. I have all those things done and in the draw I just wondered if getting in the big chains was possible but it doesnt sound if it is.

I wouldnt rule out having an agent so I will query them when I am ready even if its to get their feedback but because I dont think I will fit into a traditional organisation due to the fact that I have been in business for 25 years and am used to calling all the shots I would find it difficult being told what to do and where to go - I am a control freak sadly:eek:
 
Then I would stay right away from publishers, Gary, because the only authors who call the shots are those who have YEARS of bestsellers behind them! Otherwise, it's a matter of 'Difficult author, Life's Too Short, goodbye!!!' I have done that myself on more than one occasion.
 
Hi John, I think my last comment came across wrong. I wouldnt be difficult in fact I am as easy as an old shoe and always listen to people who know better - which in this field is everybody.
I just fancy giving it a go myself and see where it leads:)

Cheers
 
Hey John,

I was just wondering whether there's any current publishing trends, regarding POV ...

I started writing my current book, thinking that it was going to be written from one character's point of view for the entire novel ... However, it's now ended up being told from the POV of several characters.

Anyway, that's obviously just the way that I naturally write, so I'm not going to fight it ... but is one style of writing more popular than the other? Or is that kind of irrelevant, when it comes to a publishable book?

I've just been re-reading The Crow Road, and I'm amazed how Iain Banks manages to combine various character's points of view, in the same scene ... not to mention moving back and forth between a 1st and 3rd person narrative so seamlessly ...
 
I'll be very interested in John's reply to this. This concept that limited POV is vital (or we slip into the hell of "head-hopping") is very big very suddenly. I'd call it a lit fad, like "multiPOV's are the new adverbs".

Usually those things are blathered about among people with little actual experience, and snowball up on re-telling.

But as I say, I'd be extremely interested in John's opinion on the subject.
 
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