Signed by the John Jarrold Literary Agency

by Ian Hocking

Well, m’friends, much has happened over the past two weeks. It culminated on Friday morning, when a phone call to John Jarrold sealed my fate as the latest addition to the John Jarrold Literary Agency. My steely professionalism prevents me from writing things like “I hope he knows what he’s letting himself in for” but does permit me the odd swallow of champagne, in which manner I spent the greater part of Friday night.

Who is John? He’s a relatively recent addition to the agently hordes of UK publishing, having set up his agency in 2004. Before that, he ran Earthlight, the dedicated science fiction and fantasy imprint of Simon and Schuster. He’s also been director of Orbit Books (an imprint to which most SF readers will need no introduction). At Orbit, he published Arthur C Clarke, Iain Banks, Harry Harrison, and many others. So John is well versed in the dark art of publishing, and I’m very happy to have him representing me. He also sounds like a nice bloke, which can only help in dealing with my monstrous ego.

The Cunning Plan For World Domination involves working some more on the second edition of Déjà Vu. As I mentioned in a recent blog post, there is a goodish chance that Déjà Vu will rise up again in 2008, so we’ll be working on getting Déjà Vu into the best shape possible. Next up is the second sciffy novel, which is set in the same universe as Déjà Vu. John’s a well-read guy despite his genre specialism, and I’m waiting to see what he thinks of Proper Job, my comedy novel. If he doesn’t want to ritually burn it, we’ll try to hoodwink some publisher into taking it. Sorry, that last sentence lacked professionalism. I meant: We will try to find a publisher that deserves a book like Proper Job.

Hmm. I’ll try to work on my professional polish. Meanwhile, as an example to us all, here is the press release that John prepared over the weekend. I’m aware it makes me sound like a certain Aramaic-speaking carpenter, but that’s all part of the fun.

PRESS RELEASE – IAN HOCKING

British SF author Ian Hocking has joined the John Jarrold Literary Agency. His first novel, a science fiction technothriller entitled Déjà Vu, was published in 2005 by the UKA Press. The Guardian described it as ‘showing quiet skill’ and SFX called it ‘a solid technothriller’. Author Ian Watson praised it as ‘gripping, fascinating, and powerful’. Other reviewers have written ‘crisp and professional’, ‘a smart read full of fresh, clever dialogue’, ‘mind-blowing’, and ‘thought-provoking’. The book is thriller that encompasses time travel, virtual reality, and digital minds.

‘Ian mentions Jon Courtenay Grimwood and Ken MacLeod in his acknowledgements,’ said John Jarrold. ‘Having had the pleasure of publishing a number of books by them both, I can say that the many readers who love their work will thoroughly enjoy Ian’s writing. Ideas jump off the page, and his characters remain in one’s mind over a long period of time’

Hocking is presently writing another novel in the Déjà Vu universe.

Contact John Jarrold for further information by e-mail at j.jarrold@btinternet.com or by phone at 01424 440652.

20th January 2007