Advice from John Jarrold

Snippets of wisdom from literary agent and script doctor John Jarrold, originally communicated on Saturday 21st February at the Get Writing conference.

• Publishing is not a job, it’s a way of life.
• These days the whole publishing company has to buy into a book. That includes Sales and Marketing as well as Editorial.
• Your editor is your champion within the publishers.
• Two words publishers are looking for in writing: pace and clarity.
• Use a single viewpoint at a time.
• Marketing matters. Half of paperbacks are bought on the cover alone.

Get Writing in St Albans

I have had a rather busy weekend chairing – as Kate Allan – the Get Writing 2009 writers conference on Saturday. The keynote speakers at this one-day conference were the legendary John Jarrold, literary agent and script doctor, Barry Cunningham, publisher and m.d. of The Chicken House, the man who not only discovered J.K. Rowling but whose former beard – as he shared with us – was part-inspiration for the unruly beard of Roald Dahl’s Mr Twit, and Jonathan Pegg, literary agent newly-independent from Curtis Brown.

The conference also included a number of writers workshops by Toby Frost, Lesley Eames, Ian Cundell and Jenny Barden, an excellent lunch and great company. Caught up with a few friends and contacts including Alan Fisk from the Historical Novels Society; Pia Tapper Fenton, Henriette Gyland and Anne Styles from the Romantic Novelists Association and, from Verulam Writers who organised the conference, Jes Guy, Jonathan Pinnock, Kevin Bennett, Nick Cook, Amanda Smith, Dave Weaver, Jean Gardner, Steve Barley, John Spencer, Meena Wells, Tim Blinko and Susan Franklin.

John Jarrold has kindly given me permission to share some of his wise words which I hope to blog about tomorrow once I have relocated my brain and notebook.

I just have to say this now

Don’t send me something from your back catalogue that’s been out of print ten years. Don’t send me your oldest shoved-under-the-bed manuscript that’s reeking of mothballs and doesn’t represent either what you write now or want to write in the future.

Send me sample chapters of the best thing you’ve ever written, that you’ve written recently, and best reflects you the writer today.

Does that make sense? Hope so.

My new assistant

It has gone a bit mad

I have had 8 queries so far this week. Many, I think, are a result of being on the front page of this month’s Writers News.

If you’ve queried me in the last couple of weeks, it is going to take a little longer than I would like for me to get back to you. I’m now actively working with four authors whom I’ve taken on as clients, plus I have full manuscripts that I have asked to look at to read (3 on The Pile at the moment). This leaves less time available to look at queries, but I do want to consider every submission carefully so I hope you will bear with me. Thanks for your patience.

Should I use a pen name?

When querying an agent, no. When you send in your sample chapters and synopsis, I am looking only at the writing, not the writer. It does not matter:
- whether you are male or female
- how old you are
- what you do for a living (if anything)
- whether you have three heads or a penchant for musical keyrings, etc.

Thus, there is no need to disguise yourself with a faux name. I’d prefer to be sure that the person querying me is a real person, and therefore name, address and telephone number please.

So much for being in the 21st century

I trudged through the snow this afternoon to post off a couple of things and arrived at the Post Office to find the doors locked and a note pinned upon them:

“13:00 Closed due to adverse weather conditions”

In one’s novel, this would be technically known as “external conflict”.

I shall try again tomorrow.