John Jarrold’s Literary Agency Celebrates 10 years

I’d like to say a huge congratulations to John Jarrold who today celebrates the 10th anniversary of his Literary Agency.

Literary Agents are the unsung heroes in the publishing world. Every year they receive thousands of manuscripts from authors who truly believe what they are sending in is the next big thing. The literary agent and their team need to read through these manuscripts and, most likely, break the heart of the writer who sent it in. Rejection hurts and I’ve seen some of the angry letters that a literary agent receives after they’ve given their opinion.

I imagine being a literary agent is hard. In your office there are thousands of manuscripts. Undoubtedly some of them are good, but how many of them are good enough to turn a decent profit? Perhaps in every hundred there is one that is ‘publishable’ and one in every five-hundred that is ‘the next big thing’.

Complications arise when you consider that you have to take your own personal preferences out of the picture. Imagine if you weren’t really into tales about seemingly normal children who get shipped off to a school to learn magic. Harry Potter may have landed on your desk and you send it back to the author saying you didn’t like it. Maybe you pick up a tale about a human falling in love with a Vampire and think that is a sub-genre of the past. Well, you’ve just missed out on Twilight. Maybe you pick up a Lord of the Rings clone, you love it – think it is an incredible tale that needs to be read by millions. You take it to the publisher and they tell you it really doesn’t fit what they are trying to publish. Not only have you wasted your time preparing the pitch, but next time you being something to the publisher will they take your pitch as seriously?

To make it as an agent you need to have impeccable taste, you need to KNOW fiction, KNOW the markets, know the publishers and REALLY know your clients. Not only this, you need to be a skilled negotiator, you need to be able to make good decisions (such as which publisher will best represent your author) and be good at guiding your signed clients.

One of the UK’s most renowned agents who embodies all these skills is John Jarrold. John is behind so much of the UK’s Science-Fiction and Fantasy talent that I can almost guarantee Fantasy-Faction fans have read something he was responsible for getting into book stores: Mark Charan Newton, Suzanne McLeod, Robert V S Redick, Gaie Sebold, Ramsey Campbell, Gareth Powell, Jasper Kent, Eric Brown, Paul Kearney, Cory Daniells and Adam Nevill to name just a few.

Prior to running his own agency John ran a number of Science-Fiction and Fantasy imprints. As part of his work he edited the likes of Guy Gavriel Kay, Ken Macleod, Robert Holstock, Ian Macleod and many more. Moorcock said of John: ‘He has taste. He is perceptive, positive and tactful, with a keen eye for a plot fault and a skilled hand at correcting one … If your book requires attention and restoring to health – send for Doctor John!’ and Jon Courtenay Grimwood goes as far to say: ‘Without [John’s] unquestioned knowledge and talents the genre would be a much poorer place…’

So, thank you John Jarrold for bringing so many of the aforementioned authors to the publishing houses and subsequently my bookshelves. I look forward to seeing what you will help deliver to us over the next 10!

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