Bookings
Dear Friends and Readers,
I've put off writing this but finally have to explain why there are limits on what I’m able to do since I became seriously disabled eight years ago after a series of medical accidents.
Saying I can’t do so many sessions isn’t working. The organisers agree, then needs change, and suddenly I’m booked for earlier, or for longer. When I say I can only attend events by video, those who ask are hurt, thinking I don’t care about an award ceremony or want to come to a small regional or disadvantaged school. I need to be able to tell the truth, which is, ‘I’d truly love to, more than you can imagine, but I can’t.’
But there is still an enormous amount I can do.
I can attend events via video link and adore doing them.
I can give video workshops between 11am and 4 pm, as long as I don’t have to do sessions without a break in between. The video workshops to schools, libraries, book groups, festivals are more personal than the ‘in person’ presentations. Each time a student asks a question it’s as if only the two of us are talking. Somehow these sessions allow me to give more insight into how a book is written and then rewritten; more ways to make writing good, then even better, as well as how to prepare to do brilliantly in exams or NAPLAN.
I can’t write eighty emails a day answering questions anymore, but I can answer all your questions in a video. When you send me a letter, or one from everyone in the class, include an email address so I can send a video in reply.
There’s also now less time to work for the causes I believe in deeply. I’ll do all I can, but if I can’t, please understand.
I’m incredibly lucky to be an author. I can still write, possibly with a deeper focus now I no longer have to travel. As an author I’m the twelve-year-old Cleopatra facing pirates, or on the high trenches at Gallipoli looking down at the sunlit cove. I can roam everywhere in time and space, still part of Country all around me.
I listen to the wombats argue at night, and Possum X scare away intruders. It’s 10 November when the rufous fantail arrives back to nest in the bush by my window. My days and nights are spent in a room where the stone wall was built by friends. There are memories in every rock. The sounds of creaking doors down by the Bunyip Pool means the black cockatoos have arrived, and green and gold frogs sit on my window to eat the bugs attracted by my reading light.
Sometimes my crutches and I can explore the bush again, or ramble about the garden, generous and flowering despite drought, bushfire and neglect. Bryan and I still watch the moon rise from behind the ridges and find the world around us full of wonders and everchanging beauty.
I am enormously, extraordinarily lucky.
* Online workshops, talks about the history and true stories behind the books, research methods, mentoring for early career authors or any other subject you'd like me to talk about are $350 a session, the ASA recommended price. Sessions are usually an hour.
* Shorter sessions or longer sessions up to two hours, but with the same group, are all $350, as most of the work is preparing for the session.
* There's no charge for sessions for charities, kids in hospital, disadvantaged schools, good causes etc. If I can help, please ask.
If you have publicity or media enquiries, please get in touch with Emma Holifield at emma.holifield@harpercollins.com.au
Contact
Mentoring for Adults
I love mentoring emerging authors but only take on a few a year. Some mentoring is voluntary, as with mentoring postgraduate students from the University of QLD. At the moment I’m mentoring three emerging new voices who are showing exciting promise.
If you would like my help my fee is AUD $262/hour plus GST, except for the initial session, which is AUD $262 plus GST even if it takes several hours.
You may get a cheaper rate bidding for five hours at a charity auction. There are also many reasons why I’ll give advice about writing, publishing or a book without a fee.
The initial session is usually spent finding out about you, your work and where you’d like to go as an author. It can also be spent evaluating 1,000 words or so of your writing. That’s usually enough to be able to judge problems and possibilities, and the first session may be all you need.
Some authors need just the initial session, and then possibly another session before they send their mss to the publishers. Others like help throughout the book.
A structural edit is more complex: reading the whole book, and working out where it might sag, and how to solve the problem. I read quickly, and don’t charge for ‘thinking time’. Often that niggling feeling that something doesn’t work is easily solved by an outsider.
An 80,000-word book usually needs about five hours, but the rewrite may also need evaluating. A picture book will take much longer per word and page than a longer book. There’s no general rule: it depends how intensively you’d like me to edit. If our conversation starts to ramble into laughter and anecdotes, the clock for editing stops.
I will also be frank and tell you if your work is unlikely to be publishable. Thankfully I’ve never had to do that.
I can help improve your writing, teach you how to self-edit and research, but I have no influence with publishers that would help getting your work accepted, or even placed at the top of the ‘to be read’ pile. I can help you find festivals where you can pay to spend time ‘pitching’ in person to publishers and agents, as well as finding ‘pitch days’ on the web. I can also provide up to date information on the kind of work various publishers currently publish.
Hopefully the journey will be fun. We tend to laugh a lot in mentoring sessions. Once your writing career has been launched, I’ll help mentorees in any way I can, without charge.
PS. I am a hopeless proofreader. Book structure: yes. Spelling: no way.
Writing Help for Young People
If you need an idea for your story you need to think of it yourself. Help from me would mean that you don’t develop the brain ‘muscles’ that will make you a better writer.
Think about what interests you, from food to football to simply yakking with friends about their lives. All would make superb though very different kinds of stories.
Choose a character: what do they want more than anything else? Will they have it at the end of the story, or want something entirely different?
You might also like to make the ‘place’ the main character, or write about an event, with many characters. Writing is as diverse as human beings. Write what fascinates you, then rewrite it. Now think how you can make I more vivid, enticing, exciting, funnier: whatever you’d like your story to be.
But don’t worry if it doesn’t work. Writing needs experience. Keep thinking, keep writing, and you’ll get there.
Endorsing Books
There are requests for endorsement every week. There isn’t time to read every request, and I won’t endorse anything I haven’t read. Usually, I only endorse books recommended by the publishers, not the authors, with only two or possibly three endorsements per year. There are exceptions but sending me your book may mean it’s eaten by the silverfish before I have time to look at it. There’s no charge for endorsements. Offering money to read your book may make me look at the list of bills to pay and sigh, but I won’t accept your offer.
For all other questions, if you need to get in touch with me directly, please email:
Mail
I may take a few weeks to receive mail, as we only have a once-a-week delivery.
I'm no longer able to send written replies to letters or enquiries – there are too many requests for me to manage. If you need a reply, please add a phone number or email address to your letter.
I can send short replies to emails, but not when many parents and teachers have encouraged kids to write to me – I don't employ a secretary to answer my mail and emails, and can manage about 80 a day at most. Comments or even thanks for a copy of your book may also not be possible, no matter how much I adore it, though I will do my best. Apologies: I am only one person, with two tired hands.
Please send any mail to:
Jackie French
PO Box 63
Braidwood NSW 2622
For urgent enquiries, you may also contact Harper Collins during business hours:
HarperCollins Australia
Lvl 19, 201 Elizabeth Street
(PO Box A565, NSW, 1235)
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia
Tel: 02 9952 5000
Permission to Use or Copy Material
Under the conditions of publishing contracts, permission to use or adapt material must be sought from the publishers, not the author. Please contact the publishers rather than myself.
I'm also not able to give permission for any images to be used, as the artists and the designers who have worked on each book also hold the copyright for their work. They should be contacted directly, as well as the publishers.
If in doubt about whether you need permission to copy material, phone or email The Copyright Agency for free advice.
I do hold the rights for theatrical or film adaptations of my work, and so can give permission for those.
Book reviews and comments
These can only be arranged through Harper Collins, as there are too many requests for me to handle alone.
Requests for Book Donations and Book Sales
Unlike self-published authors, I need to buy the books I donate, and don't keep boxes of them or sometimes even a single copy of many titles. (Books tend to be borrowed). Boxes of books are also heavy, and I'm now unable to manage ordering them, carrying them, and packing them for donations. Postage is often almost as much as the cost of the books. Please contact Harper Collins above for donation requests.
My contracts also prevent me from selling my books, so even if it was feasible to attend, I can't run a book stall at your event.
Book Plates
Book plates are wonderful stick-on labels that are easy to post, and look good even if my writing is illegible. I can send book plates!
Questions for School Projects
Hopefully all the questions are answered in the About Me—FAQ on the website.
If there’s another question you really need an answer to, send it to: Jackie French c/- Harper Collins Publishers, PO Box A565 Sydney South 1235.
It may take a couple of weeks for me to receive the letter, and another few weeks at least before it can be answered.
Copies for Class Use
I'm sorry, but I'm unable to help when there are not enough copies held in libraries for class use. I don't have any knowledge of library collections, and can't help with finding enough library books for a class to borrow. I know the lack of copies to borrow is a major problem, but it's not one I can solve.
eBooks and Other Editions
Apologies, but I don't know of a way for an eBook copy to be shared by a whole class of students or more. Harper Collins may be able to help with this.
I'm not involved in the various editions of my books, and so can't help find rare editions or out-of-print books, or different ways eBooks might be used.
I'm so sorry – I wish I could help with these, but they aren't areas where authors are normally involved unless their work is self-published.
