"Personal" question(s) to John Jarrold

Urien said:
Hi John,

Welcome back. What's the appropriate length of a synopsis for a novel? I've read somewhat contradictory information; the bulk of it seems to be towards 1-3 pages. Thanks for your advice.
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You should have seen many, many posts about this and the one I agree with says: ask, if the information isn't on the publisher or agent's website. Give them what they ask for.

I don't want to see a synopsis, personally, just the first six chapters. Thus, synoposes aren't mentioned in my website's submission guidelines.
 
Do you think there is anything to be said for an aspiring novelist building a web page (demonstrating their wares, so to speak)? Or would that be time better spent just cracking on with their art?

I suspect the latter but I'm not exactly 'state of the art'. (Which, I happened to spot the other day, is a story collection dedicated to you. Did you help get it published or something?)
 
hey John,

is it ok for the six chapters to be normally spaced, or should they be double-spaced?

Also, apart from the obvious "Hello, I'm Thaddeus, here's my book, hope you like it" bit is anything else required in the e-mail? Thanks :)
 
J-WO said:
Do you think there is anything to be said for an aspiring novelist building a web page (demonstrating their wares, so to speak)? Or would that be time better spent just cracking on with their art?
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I shall be cheeky and answer this one - maybe John will disagree :)

These days, a writer pretty much has to have some kind of web presence, and putting up your site only days or weeks before your first book is published is not sufficient. I have a website that's been around long enough that it's the top hit for my name on Google; I also have accounts on FaceBook and Twitter*, and my writers' group has a website and a FaceBook fan page. Of course it helps that I'm a web developer by trade!

Fortunately, these days you don't need either web skillz or big money to have a web presence. A writing-focused blog on Blogspot or Wordpress is a great place to start - there are plenty of professionally designed templates to choose from, so you can be up and running in a matter of minutes. Don't worry if people don't flock to your blog immediately - the key thing is to get some content up there and get into the habit of blogging about your writing. Post progress reports, thoughts about the writing process, news, reviews of other people's books - anything that's relevant to your life as an aspiring writer. The more content you can add that might be of interest to other people, the better - I've found a lot of cool stuff via the blogs I visit regularly. Don't post your actual writing, however, unless it's something you don't plan on selling. A freebie short story or two is OK, but whilst some people have famously converted online postings into print sales, it's still a rarity.

It's easy to get sucked into social media, and it can be as big a time-waster as, say, games! It might help if you think of it as "work" and set aside some time to do it, perhaps when you know you are not going to be able to focus on writing your fiction (I find that early evenings when I get home from my day-job are a good time to chill out online). There are plenty of resources for the newcomer to networking and social media - mashable.com is a good place to start.

Hope this helps!

* twitter.com/annelyle
 
Is it best to approach an agent/publisher with a proposal for a one-off, stand alone novel, or one which could be followed by sequels?

The novel I'm co-writing is self contained and reaches a conclusion, but it does have scope to lead to follow ups or to even be the first part of a trilogy.

Is it wise to approach an agent/publisher with a proposal for a trilogy, or would that put them off when dealing with new writers?
 
darkpowers said:
Is it best to approach an agent/publisher with a proposal for a one-off, stand alone novel, or one which could be followed by sequels?

The novel I'm co-writing is self contained and reaches a conclusion, but it does have scope to lead to follow ups or to even be the first part of a trilogy.

Is it wise to approach an agent/publisher with a proposal for a trilogy, or would that put them off when dealing with new writers?
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From personal experience my novel was a stand-alone, but did have the prospect of other stories set in the same time frame with the same cast of characters.

I think the book you present has to be the best you can produce, a stonkingly good story that catches the eye of the agent/publisher. You need to show them that you are not a "one trick" pony, that you can produce good quality work. Even if you sell a trilogy, the third, or even the second book might not make it into print. A lot depends on sales, and other factors. And this happens to established mid list authors, not just your newbies.

An agent will be looking for a long term relationship, selling you as a brand, who produces good, high quality stories. So having a trilogy up your sleeve can't do any harm, but you have to sell the first book, first. So having an "end" is a good thing.
 
SJAB said:
From personal experience my novel was a stand-alone, but did have the prospect of other stories set in the same time frame with the same cast of characters.

I think the book you present has to be the best you can produce, a stonkingly good story that catches the eye of the agent/publisher. You need to show them that you are not a "one trick" pony, that you can produce good quality work. Even if you sell a trilogy, the third, or even the second book might not make it into print. A lot depends on sales, and other factors. And this happens to established mid list authors, not just your newbies.

An agent will be looking for a long term relationship, selling you as a brand, who produces good, high quality stories. So having a trilogy up your sleeve can't do any harm, but you have to sell the first book, first. So having an "end" is a good thing.
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Thank you.
 
I'll take a liberty and say that John takes subs by email. He's often at FantasyCon, which is this coming weekend in Nottingham.

I'll be there on Saturday and it will be a blast to meet any one from SFF chronicles.
Geoff
 
Thanks for that. I just thought I'd check with those may be in the know. I have emailed John with a query, but have not yet heard back, which, of course I fully understand and make no complaint about, as he is no doubt a busy man.

While I'm here again, does the choice of font matter? I like using Arial, but is it acceptable? Or should I be using Times or Courier?
 
An additional question:

I've done a lot of research today on the dos and don'ts of submissions to agents/publishers, and I'm a bit overwhelmed and concerned about apparent contradictions or ambiguities in what will and won't be accepted.

My main concern is about the length of samples. I gather they should be three chapters, but some sources say 10 pages, while others say three chapters or 10 pages, whichever is longer.

My sample chapters run to 87 double spaced pages, is that too much for an initial pitch?

Thanks again for all advice.
 
Three chapters means exactly what it says -- unless the individual agent or editor explicitly states otherwise in his or her guidelines.

New writers only get overwhelmed (and they frequently do, it's not just you) because they try to make things more complicated than they actually are, and search for hidden meanings in the guidelines.

Many publishers hate Arial, because they don't like sans-serif fonts (and Arial is one of the worst, because you can't tell the capital I's from the lower case l's), and agents want something that is ready to send out to editors. Again, check individual guidelines, but if they don't mention a preference as to font, that doesn't mean use whatever you think is prettiest or that they have some esoteric preference they aren't telling, it means stick with standard formatting, which means Courier is your safest bet. (If they do ask for something else, it will probably be Times.)
 
Scarfy said:
Could I just also add that when agents ask for three chapters, they expect to see the first three chapters.
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They usually ask for the first three in their guidelines, but you're right: even when they don't specifically say so, whatever they ask for (three chapters, 100 pages, etc.) they want it to be the beginning part of the book. They aren't looking for a random sampling, of, say, what you think are your best chapters. They want something comprehensible, and they don't want to know how fabulous your prose is as much as they want to know whether you can tell a story. The first three chapters will give them a better idea of that than any other three, so that's what they expect to get.
 
Thank you, both, for putting my mind at rest. That's much appreciated.

Two more questions and then I'll get on with preparing the submission properly. :)

What's the best way to show a break between scenes within a chapter?

* * * * or a # or something else?

and should it be centered, indented or just be at the left margin?

and finally, author/title names in header or footer?
 
Different publishers have their own style for showing section breaks. A common method for contemporary novels is to use two line breaks.

For submissions it really doesn't matter as long as you are consistent.

Geoff
 
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