Sharon Jarvis has worked in the print media for more than twenty-five years for newspaper, magazine and in publishing companies. She has built a reputation for her market-wise expertise in the cutthroat world of publishing.
Ms. Jarvis has been a sought-after editor from her days at Ballantine where she helped promote the billion-dollar science fiction boom. At Doubleday she was the acquisitions editor and worked with some of the biggest names in science fiction, including Isaac Asimov, Marion Zimmer Bradley and Harlan Ellison.
At Playboy Press, Ms. Jarvis developed, instituted and promoted the science fiction line which helped sustain the publisher through many a setback in other general lines.
In 1983 Ms. Jarvis left the field of publishing to start a literary agency. She is one of the few agents who has sought out new and untried authors. Her finds include may well known authors.
In her off hours, Ms. Jarvis teaches stage combat and choreographs fight sequences for regional theaters. She is expert in rapier and dagger, broadsword, quarterstaff, and hand-to-hand combat. She studied under weapons master Richard Rizk of the Chekov Studios in New York City and with T.J. Glenn, a professional stunt man.
Now Ms. Jarvis is embarking into the world of feature films. The key to making money in this business is to gauge the audience's tastes, to take advantage of what's in, what's out, and to predict, at least three years in advance, what the public will pay for. Ms. Jarvis has proven that she has these qualities time and time again.
Along with these endeavors Ms. Jarvis has started Toad Hall Press, a publishing company dedicated to publishing books "you can't find anywhere else." We leap to a different lily pad, she says of the companies plans to publish esoteric text books, how to books (with an emphasis on writing) and books of regional interest.
- 1992 - President of TOAD HALL INC., a multi-media corporation with numerous divisions. Toad Hall will be publishing books appealing to the science fiction fan market, beginning with The Making of The Trek Conventions by Joan Winston. One of the divisions, Belfry Books, will be publishing a line of regional, true supernatural stories as well as Jacqueline Lichtenberg's nonfiction series on the Tarot.
- 1983 - President of Sharon Jarvis & Co., Inc., a literary agency specializing in genre fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror, occult) as well as non-fiction occult and New Age.
The agency represents a number of paranormal searchers.
- 1978 - Senior acquisitions editor for Playboy Books,hardcover, trade paperback and mass-market, specializing in genre books.
- 1974 - Acquisitions editor at Doubleday. Worked with, discovered, and/or developed the careers of: Isaac Asimov, F. Paul Wilson, Eric Van Lustbader as well as many other well known authors.
- 1971 - Acquisitions editor, copyeditor, copywriter, and publicity/promotion coordinator for Beagle and Boxer Books, two specialty lines published by Ballantine Books.
- 1970 - Assistant managing editor and copywriter for Popular Library. Worked with Bob Gleason, editor-in-chief and consulting editor for TOR books.
- 1969 - Copyeditor and copywriter for Ace Books under the direction of Donald A. Wollheim (honored member of science fiction's first Fandom) and for well-known editor Terry Carr,
specializing in science fiction, fantasy and horror.
- 1964 - Elementary school teacher, tracer of missing persons, medical secretary (getting ptomaine poisoning in the hospital cafeteria), reporter, and world traveler (13 countries in seven weeks).
- 1964 - Graduated Hunter College, NYC, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree.
Sharon Jarvis is also an author, editor and columnist. Her "Out To Lunch" column (market trends and commentary) first appeared in Fantasy Newsletter and then Mystery Scene magazine