{"id":6090,"date":"2020-02-07T11:53:20","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T11:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/townhouse\/articles\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/"},"modified":"2020-02-07T11:53:20","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T11:53:20","slug":"not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/","title":{"rendered":"Not short and definitely not grumpy"},"content":{"rendered":"

OK. Next week, we\u2019re going to change the subject completely. In fact, next week, it\u2019s once again time to inspect your finest jewels. So, please, if you have a chunk of work \u2013 max 250 words \u2013 that you\u2019d like me and the assembled company to look at and admire, please present it. We\u2019ll do that via Townhouse, so everyone can see your chunk:<\/p>\n

Upload your work this Townhouse post<\/strong><\/a>
\u00a0just add a comment at the bottom.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You won\u2019t be able to upload your work if you\u2019re not signed up, but sign up is free and easy, so don\u2019t let that stop you. If you\u2019re not yet on Townhouse, you can just sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Right.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s next week taken care of. First, though, a think I need to draw this little triumvirate of short and grumpy posts to an end.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, it\u2019s been really good to share some annoyance with the crapper end of agenting and publishing. I know from your responses that those annoyances are more frequent than they ought to be. More persistent.<\/p>\n

But at the same time, I can\u2019t help feeling that it would be wrong to leave it there. Publishing is an industry driven by passion above all, so it\u2019s extremely common to find agents and publishers go above and beyond to bring work to market.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll give just two examples, but I could give a hundred.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first one is personal. I have a pretty fancy agent. He heads up London\u2019s oldest independent literary agency. He has some pretty fancy clients, notably Hilary Mantel and George Orwell (or what\u2019s left of him.) And I once came to him with a book project.<\/p>\n

I wanted to sell a \u201chow to write\u201d book to Bloomsbury, because I thought it would help get the word out about the Writers\u2019 Workshop (the forerunner to Jericho Writers.) The project was never going to be especially commercial from my agent\u2019s point of view. It was, in fact, going to be largely unrewarded.<\/p>\n

But Bill, my agent, didn\u2019t so much as blink. His job is to sell books for his clients. He wasn\u2019t about to push me to pursue something more lucrative. So I wrote the book. He sold it. His cut of that advance: \u00a3400. Once you make allowance for his support staff and his Central London offices, I would guess that Bill saw 25% of that, or maybe less.<\/p>\n

And the contract that this particular bit of Bloomsbury came back with was \u2013 shocking. It was just a bit of Bloomsbury that had never really encountered Planet Agent and still used the kind of contracts that Dickens would have recognised. The balance of risks and rewards was grossly biased in favour of the publisher.<\/p>\n

And Bill said no.<\/p>\n

Just no. He wouldn\u2019t have one of his clients sign the contract. So he renegotiated it, line by line, for weeks. When it was ready, he told me I could sign it. I did so, and he got his (tiny) share of the (very small) advance.<\/p>\n

Now, over time, both Bill and I made more money via royalties, but still not vast amounts. And I grumbled to Bill that Bloomsbury weren\u2019t supporting the book in the way that I\u2019d expected. Bill looked into my grumbles and agreed that they were valid.<\/p>\n

So he took my mini-battle \u2013 over a small book and a tiny advance \u2013 all the way to board level at Bloomsbury. He was willing to put some of his key relationships on the line because one of his clients wasn\u2019t happy. It didn\u2019t matter that the book was a small one. It mattered that the publisher wasn\u2019t properly keeping its end of the bargain.<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t, in fact, end up resolving the situation completely to our satisfaction. But by heaven, Bill tried.<\/p>\n

For an advance that would have bought a fancy lunch and nothing else.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t do any of what he did for the money. He did it because I was a client and he had a duty towards me.<\/p>\n

He, like many many agents, acts out of a belief in the book (and the author) and a sense of honour.<\/p>\n

That sense of honour is still very frequent across publishing. (More on how to get an agent here.<\/a>\u00a0Oh yes, and our header image this week is designed to evoke a sense of honour and pride. That’s my excuse for a totally random image, at any rate.)<\/p>\n

One more little story.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year, at our Festival of Writing, we welcomed Anne Meadows, the Editorial Director at Granta Books.<\/p>\n

Granta is a very fancy literary publisher. It\u2019s the kind of outfit you\u2019d be proud to be published by, stuffed full of prize winners and other esteemed authors.<\/p>\n

But prizes and esteem doesn\u2019t necessarily translate into book sales. And Granta still has to be commercially sensible. So it doesn\u2019t often offer huge advances. Which means that literary agents are unlikely to keep themselves in Marc Jacobs and Laboutins by bringing their authors to Granta\u2019s doors.<\/p>\n

But agents don\u2019t care.<\/p>\n

They come anyway, bringing their authors. And Granta and agents and authors all work hard to achieve the best results they can, even though (in most cases, not all) financial reward will not be the thing that drives them.<\/p>\n

And what does?<\/p>\n

Well, simply bringing wonderful stories, wonderfully told, to the kind of readers that appreciate those things. That\u2019s it. That\u2019s the reason.<\/p>\n

Take away that sense of passion and the authors wouldn\u2019t write, the agents wouldn\u2019t agent, and Granta wouldn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

In short, yes, there\u2019s plenty to be grumpy at in the world of publishing. And because we at Jericho are, always, on the side of authors, we will go on venting our grumps rather frequently.<\/p>\n

But at the same time, we\u2019re not idiots. This industry loves writers. And you\u2019re writers. So it loves you too. Really truly. Big love and squashy kisses.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it from me on all matters short and grumpy.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget to upload a sample of your favourite work here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll tuck into that lot next week.<\/p>\n

If you want to talk about short-and-grumpy things, then just pile into the comments below.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OK. Next week, we\u2019re going to change the subject completely. In fact, next week, it\u2019s once again time to inspect your finest jewels. So, please, if you have a chunk of work \u2013 max 250 words \u2013 that you\u2019d like me and the assembled company to look at and admire, please present it. We\u2019ll do<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29292],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-harrys-friday-email"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJericho Writers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Not short and definitely not grumpy – Jericho Writers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"OK. Next week, we\u2019re going to change the subject completely. In fact, next week, it\u2019s once again time to inspect your finest jewels. So, please, if you have a chunk of work \u2013 max 250 words \u2013 that you\u2019d like me and the assembled company to look at and admire, please present it. We\u2019ll do\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jericho Writers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jerichowriters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-07T11:53:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Harry Bingham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@JerichoWriters\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@JerichoWriters\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Harry Bingham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Harry Bingham\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/person\/34f531ec178a2b069ca3debe26c60e5a\"},\"headline\":\"Not short and definitely not grumpy\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-07T11:53:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/\"},\"wordCount\":1073,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Harry\u2019s Friday email\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/\",\"name\":\"Not short and definitely not grumpy – Jericho Writers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-07T11:53:20+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Not short and definitely not grumpy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/\",\"name\":\"Jericho Writers\",\"description\":\"Getting you published\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Jericho Writers\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/cropped-footer-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/cropped-footer-logo.png\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Jericho Writers\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jerichowriters\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/JerichoWriters\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jerichowriters\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/jericho-writers\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCcs1qhjwLR6bQYDR2x3PbOw\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/person\/34f531ec178a2b069ca3debe26c60e5a\",\"name\":\"Harry Bingham\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Harry Bingham\"},\"description\":\"Write novels and non-fic. I've published trad & self-pub. Love both. Best known for my Fiona Griffiths crime series. Oh yes, and I'm the capo di tutti capi at Jericho Writers.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/author\/harryjericho\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jericho Writers","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Not short and definitely not grumpy – Jericho Writers","og_description":"OK. Next week, we\u2019re going to change the subject completely. In fact, next week, it\u2019s once again time to inspect your finest jewels. So, please, if you have a chunk of work \u2013 max 250 words \u2013 that you\u2019d like me and the assembled company to look at and admire, please present it. We\u2019ll do","og_url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/","og_site_name":"Jericho Writers","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jerichowriters","article_published_time":"2020-02-07T11:53:20+00:00","author":"Harry Bingham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@JerichoWriters","twitter_site":"@JerichoWriters","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Harry Bingham","Estimated reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/"},"author":{"name":"Harry Bingham","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/person\/34f531ec178a2b069ca3debe26c60e5a"},"headline":"Not short and definitely not grumpy","datePublished":"2020-02-07T11:53:20+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/"},"wordCount":1073,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Harry\u2019s Friday email"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/","name":"Not short and definitely not grumpy – Jericho Writers","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-02-07T11:53:20+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/not-short-and-definitely-not-grumpy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Not short and definitely not grumpy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/","name":"Jericho Writers","description":"Getting you published","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization","name":"Jericho Writers","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/cropped-footer-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/cropped-footer-logo.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Jericho Writers"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jerichowriters","https:\/\/x.com\/JerichoWriters","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jerichowriters\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/jericho-writers\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCcs1qhjwLR6bQYDR2x3PbOw"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/person\/34f531ec178a2b069ca3debe26c60e5a","name":"Harry Bingham","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg","caption":"Harry Bingham"},"description":"Write novels and non-fic. I've published trad & self-pub. Love both. Best known for my Fiona Griffiths crime series. Oh yes, and I'm the capo di tutti capi at Jericho Writers.","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/author\/harryjericho\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}