Important info re. emails to John Jarrold...

When I first started out, I had a VERY harsh critter sledgehammer my excerpt. I admit to having thin skin back then, but I bounced back soon enough. It does make you stronger.

...and he's fantastic for pointing out places you'll lose a reader and what not
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Definitely!
 
It is tempting to pay someone in the hope they'll fix all the problems in your novel. JJ gave me some great advice and I wasn't on the Chrons site then, so I had no one to crit my work. However I'm going to resist a second edit, even though I do have this unremitting urge to get another one.

It takes times to write a good novel, and it doesn't need to be rushed, I keep reminding myself.
 
Just got my response from John (a rejection, sadly) - so Xagarath, I'm guessing you should be getting your response fairly soon! Good luck!
 
I did - and it was also a rejection, though one of the nicest I've received. Thanks, though!
 
I'm sorry for you guys. I haven't got back a reply. So the waiting game for me is as excruciating as what it was with the HV competition. However I will give him another month before I'll think about giving a nudge.
 
I got a personal rejection this morning.

I have now read your material – apologies for the delay, I’ve just been snowed under. This is far better than the earlier work I read, but although I can see the imagination at work here I can’t honestly say I loved it. After fifteen years in publishing before setting up the agency, I'm all too aware how difficult it is to get a publisher interested in a new writer, so I feel that I do have to love my clients' work - personally and professionally - to do the best possible job. If I don't feel that strongly, I'm the wrong agent. Publishing is a notoriously subjective business, and every new author needs both an agent and an editor who do love their work. It's hellishly difficult getting the bookselling chains to take a new novelist seriously, so that initial enthusiasm is vital. If an author’s prose doesn’t set me on fire, first and foremost, I say no, as do editors in this situation.

Most UK editors see around thirty books every week and only take on one or two debut novels over an entire year. A senior editor told me a few weeks ago that even if he loved an author's writing, he wouldn't make an offer until the book that was submitted to him was 100% right for the market - he has just acquired an author whose previous four novels he (and everyone else in London) had turned down despite liking them a great deal. Thus, I have to believe the writers I take on are truly wonderful, or it's pointless submitting them. I wasn’t entirely drawn in by your story and characters – I wasn’t thinking WOW, which is what I look for. Another agent may feel differently, of course. So often, it's about unquantifiable gut reaction and the pricking of your thumbs.


FYI, I've taken on about forty writers as clients and turned down well over 9,000, so far...I know it can be as difficult to get an agent as it is to be taken on by a publisher. You just have to keep plugging away.


All best wishes for the future
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And to he honest I don't feel bad but keep wondering on how could I improve it further as I think I should submit to AR's competition. And probably try some agents at other side of the pond before I push it out through kindle.
 
I said:
ctg, did you get your book edited first?
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Of course not. I don't have that kind of money to throw around. The government won't pay personal carer's and it's extremely difficult to get carer benefits without them declaring that mrs is one. And you know very well how difficult it is to get a work in the IT market (and I would have to do caring on top of that).
 
Don't change it; he's saying it's not for him but it might work for someone else. You're doing the right thing by submitting it to other agents. It can't hurt to see what you get back. :)
 
CTG, I don't know if this helps or not, but I've had a couple of rejections from John and a read a couple of others' and this is the only part of your rejection which is not John's form:

I have now read your material – apologies for the delay, I’ve just been snowed under. This is far better than the earlier work I read,

It's just that I know when I read the bit about imagination and him not loving it in my first, it kind of devastated me. So, what's he's saying is that your work is loads better, but not quite for him. I think that's encouraging.

I hope this is helpful rather than making you feel that it's disappointing the rest of it is form.
 
Leisha said:
Just thought I'd let everyone know that John Jarrold doesn't always get emails, because his spam filter is a little too trigger-happy. He says that if you don't receive a response from him within 24 hours, you should email again. I also have a second email address of his which you can try if none of your emails are getting through, so PM me if you need it. I wouldn't want to post it publicly, else that one will end up spammed, too.

Edit: For any wondering, he says he responds to ALL emails within 24 hours (unless his website home page says he's away), so that includes acknowledgements of receipt for submissions.


Oh, and no, I'm not connected to John in any way. But I can recommend his editing services. He did a wonderful job on my horrendous novel back in 2008. :p
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Leisha can you help? I read your post with interest as I sent a submission to John Jarrold last month with the follow up advised after two weeks, but still heard nothing. Could you let me have the alternative address? Many thanks
 
Wish I had seen this two years or so ago when I submitted after spending ages editing, doing an updated synopsis, and, most time consuming of all, researching two or three recently successful authors in the same sub genre, reading their books and producing a comparison of my work with theirs, as requested on JJ's website, all to receive a deafening silence. The polite follow up a few weeks later, and email from a different address weeks after that, asking if he'd got it and offering to resend, also received no response. Since then and following similar experiences elsewhere, I've continued to re-edit with the intention of self publishing. Nice to know anyway that I may not have been deliberately ignored.
 
I heard nothing back to my last sub from various emails and John had always responded to earlier ones. Either he's not seeking new clients - but I think he'd mention that on his site - or the email is kaput.

Good luck with the book.
 
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