"Personal" question(s) to John Jarrold

I would give it another couple of weeks, in case he is busy with something else right now. Then send a polite message asking if he received your previous email, since they do seem to go astray quite a lot.

As I understand it, John almost never takes on editing clients as represented authors. And it would also look bad if he directed writers whose novels he had rejected to his editing service. So you may have to decide which of his two businesses to approach.

IIRC, you are a relative beginner, anthorn, in which case you might want to go for the editing. Agents are extremely selective about whom they represent, and your writing really has to be of a very high standard indeed to get their attention. If you think you need editing, you're probably not ready for an agent.
 
I'm a beginner in the sense that I am not published but i've been writing for 7 years. And I feel as though my work would be suitable for publication. I think I am also getting a handle on self editing, though I planned this so fully that I ended up with every scene being worth it.
 
FWIW, I've been writing on and off for over thirty years, though I've really only been taking it seriously since about 2003. For me the hard part was never editing; it was learning how to stick with a story until I had an entire novel's worth of material.

But we digress...
 
I'm new to these forums, and i'm not sure if Mr. Jarrold still posts here, so forgive me if this question is misplaced...

I am nearing completion of a novel, and have begun to prepare a final synopsis and so on, with a view to publication. One doubt i have, is that although there is an effective "arc" for the story itself, it is planned to lead on to another, and as such, the end is something of a cliffhanger. It's not, i should emphasise, something that turns the story on its head. Its just the beginning of the next plot development.

I know that the advice when approaching a publisher is not to have cliffhanger endings, or leave your synopsis inconclusive. So what's the best course of action?


1) Do you add the cliffhanger to your synopsis?

2) Do you just present the story as the current story, and gloss over the cliffhanger ending, hoping that it will go down well? (whilst having made clear that there are sequels in the offing)

3) Do you omit the cliffhanger ending, and save it for the next book?
 
I haven't seen John around for a while - he's a busy man!

Here's my tuppence-happorth. Take it with a pinch of salt - I've just sold a novel with an epilogue that has, if not a cliffhanger, at least a strong hook into the rest of the series, but I haven't had any editorial feedback yet as to whether they want me to keep it or drop it!

1. If the agent likes your book, he/she will want to know what other projects you have lined up, whether they are sequels or standalones in the same genre. In the UK at least, a single book is a hard sell, particularly in SF&F; multi-book deals are the norm.

2. OTOH, a major cliffhanger may not go down well as an ending to a debut novel.

To my mind, it depends on what you mean by a cliffhanger. I read a novel a while back which I mostly loved, but it was clearly one huge book split into two because it ended with a vital plot thread unresolved and a major character potentially dead. That to me is too big a cliffhanger. If on the other hand your "cliffhanger" is that the heroes have won the battle but not the war, that's more of a lead-in to a sequel than a cliffhanger as such.

So, I would say, if your cliffhanger involves leaving your major characters in an unresolved state of peril, drop it and use it as an opening hook for Book Two. If it's just a loose plot thread or two, you can more safely leave it in.

Either way, don't even mention it in the initial query - you can discuss sequels once the agent is interested in reading past the first few pages. It was my agent who broached the subject of sequels, without any prompting from me!
 
I'm in a similar boat with mine, and have asked about it here. Unfortunately, I've received conflicting views.

My take on it, from what other people have said, is that you won't get a publishing deal without both books in a pretty good state of readiness for publication, but an agent MAY take you on based on the first book, if it's good enough.

The danger is that you will get the first book published and then not be able to finish the second. Or you have written yourself into a corner with some of the plotting in the first book that can't be resolved in the second, and there is no scope to rewrite the first as it is already published.

Perhaps a solution in your individual case would be to separate the cliffhanger ending from the rest of the story and do what Anne did, which is to put it in an epilogue. That way, if the publisher wants to take on the series, they can include the epilogue, and if not, they can ignore it.

But, as with everything, if the agent or publisher likes it - really likes it - I'm not sure it will matter too much.

PS I've moved my own story to a PS since it wasn't relevant to the query, but I wanted to put it in anyway.

PPS Basically, my story will be told across three "books", and the first ends with a large part of the storyline completed, a "separation" (for want of a better word) of the 2 main protagonists and something of an "ending" for some other main characters (not a cliffhanger, however).
There is quite obviously more to come, but there are no "Ohmygod what's going to happen NEXT???!!" issues.
And whilst I have a good initial draft of Book 2 written, I've not finished it, nor have I done a lot with Book 3.
So what to do??
 
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mad_iguana said:
Basically, my story will be told across three "books", and the first ends with a large part of the storyline completed, a "separation" (for want of a better word) of the 2 main protagonists and something of an "ending" for some other main characters (not a cliffhanger, however).
There is quite obviously more to come, but there are no "Ohmygod what's going to happen NEXT???!!" issues.
And whilst I have a good initial draft of Book 2 written, I've not finished it, nor have I done a lot with Book 3.
So what to do??
Click to expand...

For whatever it's worth, I'm currently writing two different novel sequences for two different publishers.

The first, the 'Noise' books with Solaris, (second book, The Noise Revealed, just about to be released) was bought on the basis of a synopsis and a sample chapter. At the end of the synopsis I made it obvious there was more to come but didn't have a clue what that might be. I was signed up for a two book deal with the option to extend.

The second, 'The City of 100 Rows' with Angry Robot (second book, City of Hope and Despair just out now in the UK and USA), I sold on the basis of the first novel completed and a very vague synopsis for a second (which bore little similarity to the second book when it was eventually written). Again, I was signed up for a two book deal with the option to extend, and am now writing the third and concluding volume.

Write your novel. Show it to an agent. If it stands out sufficiently from all the other submissions he/she's received, they'll accept you as a client. If the end of the novel needs altering or moving to an epilogue or whatever, they'll tell you.
 
Thanks for the feedback Ian - it's good to get an idea from an actual published writer who's been there.
This has inspired me to consider just finishing Book 1 rather than trying to write all of 2 & 3 before going further. (Which, to be fair, I found a bit intimidating, given the chance of writing long hours over the next 6 months only to then discover - too late! - that my work was completely unpublishable).
 
Ian Whates said:
For whatever it's worth, I'm currently writing two different novel sequences for two different publishers.

The first, the 'Noise' books with Solaris, (second book, The Noise Revealed, just about to be released) was bought on the basis of a synopsis and a sample chapter. At the end of the synopsis I made it obvious there was more to come but didn't have a clue what that might be. I was signed up for a two book deal with the option to extend.

The second, 'The City of 100 Rows' with Angry Robot (second book, City of Hope and Despair just out now in the UK and USA), I sold on the basis of the first novel completed and a very vague synopsis for a second (which bore little similarity to the second book when it was eventually written). Again, I was signed up for a two book deal with the option to extend, and am now writing the third and concluding volume.

Write your novel. Show it to an agent. If it stands out sufficiently from all the other submissions he/she's received, they'll accept you as a client. If the end of the novel needs altering or moving to an epilogue or whatever, they'll tell you.
Click to expand...

But how did you get your toe in the door? The first time? Do you want to talk about it? Did you have to run around agents? Was your first submission accepted? Great that you've made it! Great! I am being entirely sincere.
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RJM Corbet said:
But how did you get your toe in the door? The first time? Do you want to talk about it? Did you have to run around agents? Was your first submission accepted? Great that you've made it! Great! I am being entirely sincere.
icon7.gif
Click to expand...

RJM, if you're still interested in the answer to this, the process is explained in fair detail in a recent interview with me that's just been posted on Keith Brooke's blog: Ian Whates interviewed all things keith brooke and infinity plus
 
Hey John. Seems as though you're busy busy busy. Just wondering do you have a no reply policy if not interested?
Just wondering as it has been a few months since I sent you an email. I don't know if you have read it or lost it as I have heard of problems of emails from Yahoo to BT,
 
I'm not a spokesman for Mr. Jarrold, but a query I sent him once got no reply. However, my submission (which was rejected, alas) did.
 
Oh okay. I sent him a Query plus submission. So maybe he just ignored it because of that? Maybe I should send only a word file?
 
My guess (and it's only that) is that the volume of stuff Mr. Jarrold gets sent is such that it's easy for bits and pieces to go missing. I doubt he deliberately chose not to reply, he's probably just busy and it's either in a to-do list or has been misplaced.
 
Do you think it is worth resending?
Date sent: March19th.
And the query asking if he'd recieved it was send
Date sent: April 19th
 
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