New Leaf Literary & Media

Queried Suzie Townsend on 6/25 and got a very enthusiastic request for a full on 6/29. I knew she had a quick turnaround time, but I was still surprised to hear back after 4 days. Fingers crossed!

artemis said:

Queried Suzie Townsend on 6/25 and got a very enthusiastic request for a full on 6/29. I knew she had a quick turnaround time, but I was still surprised to hear back after 4 days. Fingers crossed!

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That's awesome, artemis! Good luck!

I got a request from Suzie Townsend off WriteOnCon. Sent the manuscript - a middle grade contemporary - and her confirmation said she's at around 60 days for fulls.

Does anybody know if their "don't query more than one agent here" is a "don't query more than one at a time?" Or is it a "don't query more than one EVER?" (i.e., "no from one is no from all")

Moonchild said:

Does anybody know if their "don't query more than one agent here" is a "don't query more than one at a time?" Or is it a "don't query more than one EVER?" (i.e., "no from one is no from all")

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I think it's supposed to be a no-from-one-of-us-is-a-no-from-all-of-us situation, but I once queried Joanna Volpe and Suzie Townsend with the same project (not simultaneously, two or three months apart), and they didn't make a big deal out of it. So maybe that's tacit endorsement?

(For the record, I HATE this submission policy. I know these agencies always say they pass queries around and whatnot, but there's no way they can know each other's tastes so precisely. Some great projects are going to slip through the cracks.)

Thanks for the response Krista! And I'm right there with you on the not being a fan of the "no from one is no from all" policy of some agencies either. I mean, I totally get not querying simultaneously. To me, that's just a professional courtesy. But querying different agents months apart seems like an entirely different beastie from my perspective. I mean, given the sheer numbers of queries they receive, and how incredibly busy agents are, something is bound to slip through the cracks with that system. Oh well.

Thanks again!

queried Joanna Volpe on Jan 15th. Still waiting to hear back (very stressful!)

Just queried Suzie Townsend.

Anyone looking for the latest on what Joanna is looking for since re-opening to queries, I got some really good, super specific answers from her in a recent interview. She gives some really great info on the differences between her and Suzie, in terms of taste in YA, for those deciding between them:

http://alexadonne.com/2014/01/06/agent-interview-joanna-volpe-of-new-leaf-literary/

andiwrite said:

Just queried Suzie Townsend.

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Rejected today.

Anyone have recent interactions with this lovely agency?

Queried Suzie 05/05, full request 05/10

:0) Am very hopeful, but not counting chickens before etc...

She said it might take up to 60 days but with any luck I'll have already heard.

Wildflower90 said:

Queried Suzie 05/05, full request 05/10

:0) Am very hopeful, but not counting chickens before etc...

She said it might take up to 60 days but with any luck I'll have already heard.

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That's amazing! Good luck!!! What genre did you query Suzie with?

I noticed on their website that, whilst they do take on NA authors/books, the focus there is entirely on contemporary [Romance]. My NA is Romance but second-world Fantasy.
Do you think that their previous sales in this mean they're uninterested in NA that's not contemporary, or is it more of a case that they haven't yet found a Fantasy NA they like?

HLWampler said:

Anyone have recent interactions with this lovely agency?

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Queried Suzie Townsend with a mystery on 3/28. Got a full request on 4/8. Assuming I'll hear back soon since she said 60 days.

They are having a twitter pitch contest this Friday 5/23. Details here.

Sorry, HLWampler, only just seen this!! I queried with an adult paranormal romance. Unfortunately, got a rejection today. Wouldn't take the timing as normal though, as I had a contract come through for a different book and asked if she would read this one quicker (in a nice way!) so if she liked it she might be able to offer rep and go over this contract.

She said while she thought my writing was lovely, she didn't love the MS I sent her enough to offer rep. Still, very gracious and generous with her time. Continue to think of her as a fabulous and brilliant agent.

Good luck to everyone else!

I posted an interview with Ms. Brady and one of her clients, Catherine Lo, on my blog this morning:

http://www.kristavandolzer.com/2014/08/agent-author-chat-mackenzie-brady-and.html

They talk about how they came to work together on Ms. Lo's THIS IS HOW IT ENDS (which recently sold to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). If you're thinking about querying Ms. Brady or want to know how long she typically takes to respond, you might find it helpful.

I just got my very first reject via the very nice Ms Townsend. I queried 9.19 and got a response 9.28. It was very painless, which I'm grateful for.

I just wanted to put this here for anyone who got a rejection from New Leaf. I think they're pretty awesome for opening themselves up to resubmitting queries this way.

I heard there was a mass exodus of writers from New Leaf? Such as Victoria Aveyard and Dan Krokos, among others?
Is there any sort of more detailed information on this? I'd really appreciate it. I welcome a private message, too, if that's preferable.
I'm not trying to throw shade on anyone, it's just something I heard and since I'm super interested in the agency...

Windcutter said:

I heard there was a mass exodus of writers from New Leaf? Such as Victoria Aveyard and Dan Krokos, among others?
Is there any sort of more detailed information on this? I'd really appreciate it. I welcome a private message, too, if that's preferable.
I'm not trying to throw shade on anyone, it's just something I heard and since I'm super interested in the agency...

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I'm not sure about a mass exodus, but unless this was very very recently, Victoria Aveyard is still with New Leaf. I follow her and her agent on twitter and she still sites Suzie Townsend as her agent on twitter and her website, and they tweet back and forth sometimes. As for Dan Krokos, any research I did has him still citing New Leaf as his agency. Was there an article about authors leaving? I tried to find info but didn't come across any articles.

EQ Joanna Volpe 9/30/14
No response = assume "no" as response times are stated as around two weeks

Moonchild said:

Does anybody know if their "don't query more than one agent here" is a "don't query more than one at a time?" Or is it a "don't query more than one EVER?" (i.e., "no from one is no from all")

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I saw this question answered on their tumblr account. It did say that they share queries and to only query one agent. I had a full out with an agent here and from tumblr I gathered that if it was something they were interested in, they would discuss it with the whole team.

That said, this agency was amazing during my revision process (suggestions for revisions, answered my questions, quick responses, updates when it had been a while to let me know they hadn't gotten to it yet but they hadn't forgotten me, etc). I was crushed to receive a rejection in the end...would have loved to work with any of these agents. Highly recommend them to anyone going through this grueling process.

taeray said:

I'm not sure about a mass exodus, but unless this was very very recently, Victoria Aveyard is still with New Leaf. I follow her and her agent on twitter and she still sites Suzie Townsend as her agent on twitter and her website, and they tweet back and forth sometimes. As for Dan Krokos, any research I did has him still citing New Leaf as his agency. Was there an article about authors leaving? I tried to find info but didn't come across any articles.

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Sorry for a late reply! I just went through my browser's history trying to find the article... with no result. It was an article mentioning Victoria Aveyard's movie deal, and in the comments someone asked about her literary agent and people said she wasn't with NL anymore just like several more authors like Dan Krokos, which made me wonder.

Queried Ms. Brady a few days back and got a very nice personalized rejection, and queried Ms, Volpe today (wasn't sure if their policy was don't query more than one agent at once, or don't query more than one at all). Here's hoping.