About the Publishing board

[Ian Whates]

Welcome back, John,

Glad to see you focusing on the important things -- pubs and restaurants! Nice to know that you're settling in so well.

 

[StewHotston]

Whew - welcome back from a newbie, was beginning to think you'd disappeared from the face of the earth...

 

[Havlen]

Welcome back. In order to acclimate you back to the board, we will refrain from battering you with dozens of questions for the next seven minutes.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Welcome back, from another newbie

 

[John Jarrold]

Thanks to everyone for the good wishes! Ask away...

 

[Giovanna Clairval]

So, asking...


Can you tell us what are the great trends in Fantasy in 2008?
What are the publishers reflecting on?
Is the interest in series holding? Is the range of novels (sub-genre and themes) getting more broad, as in the past years, or can we foresee greater polarisation?
Is the supernatural sub-genre living up its past?
And how are the new authors published in 2007 doing? Can their results teach us something about the future?

Too many questions?

 

[John Jarrold]

So, asking...


Can you tell us what are the great trends in Fantasy in 2008?
What are the publishers reflecting on?
Is the interest in series holding? Is the range of novels (sub-genre and themes) getting more broad, as in the past years, or can we foresee greater polarisation?
Is the supernatural sub-genre living up its past?
And how are the new authors published in 2007 doing? Can their results teach us something about the future?

Too many questions?

There is no one trend. Big books still sell, small books don't (120,000 words on up).

I have no idea what publishers are reflecting on, other than sales figures!

Series have outsold one-off novels for twenty years and more in fantasy, and will continue to do so. The majority of the readership likes a setting they know (however spiky and difficult the story is). Not 'polarisation', just breadth of imagination. That's good.

Supernatural fiction is living up to its present, which is all any commercial genre can do.

There is no template re. 2007 authors - or any other year. It's subjective. The main thing to say is that fantasy is a broader genre than it was twenty or so years ago, when anything that didn't have wizards, magic artefacts, etc., was considered uncommercial in major-league terms.

 

[Anarchon]

Do we know the new guys' sales figures?

Who are the bestsellers?

 

[John Jarrold]

I can't give you direct sales figures, but go into your local bookshops and look at the newer writers on the fantasy/SF shelves. I've lposted this list of the major UK debuts from 2006 before, but here it is again:

GOLLANCZ

THE BLADE ITSELF - JOE ABERCROMBIE. Dark and witty with a background reminiscent of the recent fantasy bestsellers from Steven Erikson. Featuring cowardly officers, cynical but fascinating torturers and a magi who may be a fake.

THE LIES OF LOCKE LAMORA – SCOTT LYNCH. Set in an analogue of Italy around the fifteenth century, with a protagonist who might be called a mixture of the Artful Dodger and Oliver Twist, times 100. Wonderful background and characters, and deeply funny.

THR STORMCALLER - TOM LLOYD. Young outcast 'white-eye' is called to replace the charismatic Lord Bahl, as prophecies wind around him. Very dark. Good sense of place.



TOR UK/MACMILLAN

SCAR NIGHT - ALAN CAMPBELL. Real tour-de-force, compared to Mervyn Peake and China Mieville, but more central to the commercial fantasy genre, featuring swords and witches, for instance. But the city and land in which it's set is all-important, and wonderfully conjured. Campbell has designed the GRAND THEFT AUTO computer games.



ORBIT

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW - MIKE CAREY. First UK author to join Orbit's burgeoning 'supernatural thriller' stable (which includes Laurell K Hamilton and Kelley Armstrong). Sleazy, down-at-heel and witty. Carey wrote the graphic novels HELLBLAZER and LUCIFER, and has written for Marvel and DC over a number of years.

WINTERBIRTH - BRIAN RUCKLEY. Fantasy series being compared by the publisher with Robert Jordan and David Gemmell. Human clans, ancient races, gritty realism and wars that range across continents.


HARPERCOLLINS VOYAGER

TEMERAIRE - NAOMI NOVIK. Horatio Hornblower meets Anne McCaffrey's dragons in a fantastical Napoleonic War. Good characters, interesting plot-lines, already selling very well both sides of the Atlantic, and first in a series.

The fifth major fantasy publisher in the UK, Bantam/Corgi, didn’t publish any debuts in 2006. Remember that each of the editors will be seeing around thirty books every week, and these were the only authors they published for the first time in 2006 with a big marketing push.

 

[Mharvey]

Greetings everyone.

I'm still relatively new to these boards, and was wondering if it would be okay to post a query letter for a novel? I'd really like those who are experienced in publishing to tell me whether this is a letter that has a shot of soliciting the next level of response, or if there's technical/style problems with it that would earn it a free ride home in my SASE.

If it's allowed, I'll post it in its own thread.

 

[wildwolfpublishing]

I, Brian,

I tried to send you a pm, but it wouldn't let me.

I just wanted to know why my posts were taken down about Wild Wolf Publishing.

I thought sites like this (that have sections dedicated to fledgling writers) would be an ideal place to start letting people know that we are open for business.

I look forward to your comments.

Ed

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I'm not Brian, but I am a moderator and I can answer your question.

The Terms of Use you agreed to when you signed up contain this section:

6. As a general rule, self promotion by new members is frowned upon and will likely be treated as spam. This includes promotion of own non-commercial websites.

Established members are welcome to share their websites/books with other members and facilities may be provided for this.

I am sure that as someone with enough love for books to start a publishing company you have a lot to share with us and you would more than welcome to become a contributing member of the community. Once you settled in everyone would be eager to hear about your new venture. In the meantime, if you want to make a brief announcement in Press Releases, that will be fine.

(But including in the post above the same information that was removed elsewhere is still self-promotion.)

 

[Ian Whates]

Endorsing what Teresa has already said, the rules may seem frustrating, but the whole point of Chronicles is to be the focus for a community of people with a love of speculative fiction. Clearly, somebody who visits purely to promote their own venture is not contributing to that community but utilising it as a potential resource.

Not that I'm suggesting for one moment that this was your intent, but that's why the rules were established. So please, feel free to wander around the forums and join in discussions, contributing your knowledge and opinion as appropriate. Once you have been here for a while, you're welcome to tell the rest of us what you yourself are doing. That's why the 'Press Release' section was established.

All that aside, welcome to the Chrons, wildwolf!

 

[wildwolfpublishing]

Thanks for taking the time to explain that to me and thanks for the warm welcome

 

[John Jarrold]

Many apologies for being away so long. the reason is positive (in business terms) -work just exploded before Christmas and has been hectic ever since! My workload is roughly twice what it was this time last year. But I've now caught up and I'll be back as normal by the weekend!

 

[Fal]

hi John,

Just wanted to say how nice it was to see a literary agent on here, offering advice and being so helpful and friendly (not that I think agent's aren't friendly hehe).

It's quite a scary world out there after finishing your first novel, going through the editing and proof reading and then starting to research what happends next. It is, then, quite reassuring to find an agent on a forum, giving advice and handing out helpful tips and (for me personally) taking away some of the fear that has shrouded me since I first typed in 'Literary Agents' into my browser, not to mention reading books regarding what to do after finishing your first novel.

I again want to thank you then, for doing what you do and giving the new starters like me hope!

Kindest regards

Jonathan

 

[Gary Compton]

Hey Fal

John is a great guy, humility pumps through his veins. Check out his website www.johnjarrold.co.uk his CV and clients list is impressive.

I always remember way back when, on a saturday night, like you I was surfing the net and came across his site. I emailed him about editing my work. Unbelieviably he replied within 10 minutes!! it was 10PM.

I've used him for his editing skills and its well worth while if you can afford it, having him look at your work. You'll get constructive honest answers that will move your manuscript forward

 

[Fal]

Cheers Gary, I'd already booke marked it and have had a quick look, but promised myself more time at some point, when not at work and on lunch, like now lol

I've had quite a lot of feedback on here for part of my Prologue and think I have a lot of work to do after taking what has been said on board, but after that, his services would be great (the work I have yet to do will give me time to save £££ too).

I also need to start learning again, learning English and grammer! Long time since I was at school! It's quite embarrassing in a way, at how much I now realise I've done wrong, but it's all a learning curve and I have everyone on here to thank for opening my eyes!

It's nice to also hear of someone who was once in the position I find myself in now, and who used John's service to help them move forward.

Thanks again Gary!

 

[Gary Compton]

Dont worry, even if you post something that is perfect in every respect, someone will find fault with it.

That's the nature of the beast, one man's passion is another's poison.

Just keep going and you will improve, even when you sell 100 million books (see my Dan Brown thread) you'll still get slagged off so as long as you're happy and your book is selling, you cany ask for anymore!

 

[Fal]

Kind words Dany, thank you!