"Personal" question(s) to John Jarrold

[John Jarrold]

Great film, Wendy Hiller is wonderful, and the GREAT Roger Livesey, who only P&P used properly as an actor.

 

[TheEndIsNigh]

I'm still waiting for Ken Russel's nuns...

You did promise.

 

[John Jarrold]

And this thread has hit 40,000 views, which is wonderful - and amazing! Thank you all.

 

[iansales]

I've read Russell's book - Mike & Gaby's Space Gospel. I remember thinking it wasn't very good. I'm also a fan of Powell & Pressburger's films. And David Lean too.

 

[Gary Compton]

Hi John,congratulations on the 40,000!

I have a question for you. Based on what you have said on one POV per scene and then a line break would it makesense to make the line break a new chapter. Some scenes are 2-3 pages and others are 15-20.

What do you think?

 

[John Jarrold]

Not always - sometimes two or three scenes combine to make up a chapter - again, have a look at recent thrillers by a number of writers, Gary. That's always a good thing...

 

[Gary Compton]

Thanks John,I have already done that and I suspected that there isn't a set rule which you have just confirmed - every book is individual.

 

[John Jarrold]

Exactly. Apart from the layout, double-spacing, etc., so much is about what works for the specific book. It's a phrase I've used many times before: There is no exact template.

 

[Doctor Sax]

The perfect chapter is as exactly as long as it takes to read while sitting on the toilet.

 

[Troo]

Better start that research into how long one can sit before the bum goes numb, then.

 

[Ian Whates]

A day and a bit does it for me, Troo!

 

[John Jarrold]

Once again, I have no comment to make...!

 

[Doctor Sax]

What star sign are you, John (well, this is personal questions)?

It's just that the always accurate Claire Petulengro says in my horoscope today that "Geminis can solve a money dilemma", and I was just wondering...

 

[John Jarrold]

Ho-ho-ho...! Not even a little bit obvious...

 

[Troo]

A day and a bit does it for me, Troo!

Ohhh, you have the well-trained buttocks of a Sage, Mr. Whates sir!

 

[Flemcodogmusic]

I find you can get a lot more mileage, as it were, from the wooden toilet seats. In my experience, when it comes to plastic toilet seats, you're lucky if you can even get through the Sunday paper, without losing all sensation in your backside!

That's just my opinion, of course ...

 

[Flemcodogmusic]

Anyway, to get back on topic ...

John, do you have any idea which Horror writers are the biggest sellers at the moment?

I grew up reading Stephen King, Clive Barker, James Herbert, Richard Laymon, Dean Koontz, etc, so I'm probably a bit out of touch ...

 

[lin robinson]

I find you can get a lot more mileage, as it were, from the wooden toilet seats.

That's why I'm a member of the Birch John Society.

 

[John Jarrold]

Anyway, to get back on topic ...

John, do you have any idea which Horror writers are the biggest sellers at the moment?

I grew up reading Stephen King, Clive Barker, James Herbert, Richard Laymon, Dean Koontz, etc, so I'm probably a bit out of touch ...

Horror has been very difficult to sell in the UK for over a decade - unless you're one of those huge sellers you mention, David. Have a look in your local bookshops (always good for rule-of-thumb market research) and you'll still see those names. It went out of fashion, as genres sometimes do. It was also overpublished in the 70s and 80s. There is a renaissance just beginning, but most publishers are still only looking to take on one or maybe two horror novelists - and then quite often they will need to cross over to the thriller market. John Connolly is a name that comes to mind. No one wants a horror 'line', maybe a book every month, as most UK publishers had twenty and more years ago (though I'm delighted to see Virgin Books publishing in the genre whole-heartedly now. I've been able to get Ramsey Campbell his first UK mass-market deal for some years with them, as well as selling Adam Nevill's debut, BANQUET FOR THE DAMNED, to them).

The area of supernatural fiction that HAS been successful in recent years is the supernatural thriller, of course - by authors like Laurell K Hamilton, Jim Butcher, Tanya Huff and so on. They are often published on SFF imprints. Orbit has over half-a-dozen of them going right now.

 

[Gary Compton]

The area of supernatural fiction that HAS been successful in recent years is the supernatural thriller, of course - by authors like Laurell K Hamilton, Jim Butcher, Tanya Huff and so on. They are often published on SFF imprints. Orbit has over half-a-dozen of them going right now.

What would your definition of supernatural fiction be John?

All this talk of toilets has got me a little flushed, glad to get back to sensible questions