[Agency] Fuse Literary (formerly Foreword Literary)

Hello, fabulous writers of AWWC! I'm a Foreword intern with a quick message:

Laurie McLean's query email is now [email protected] .

A lot of writers are still sending queries to her old email. Please make sure to use the email above, and not the previous email.

Also, thank you to everyone who sends in queries. You writers are fantastic people, and your talent never ceases to amaze me. So please keep those queries coming!

Emily Keyes has joined Foreward (moving over from the LPerkins Agency)

Announcement Here

I'm very confused. I looked up Emily Keyes on twitter and it seems that either she is closed to queries, or the entire agency is closed to queries, until January. It says nothing about being closed to queries on the agency website that I can find. Anyone know what's going on?

Edit: Ah ha, found it in a blog post under agency news. The entire agency is indeed closed to queries until January 2014.

Not sure about the agency as a whole, but QueryTracker lists the ones I looked up (Laurie McLean, Emily Keyes, and Pam van Hylckama Vlieg) as closed to submissions until January 1. I'd check the individual agents' QueryTracker profiles or Twitter accounts to see if they're open.

A.P.M. said:

I'm very confused. I looked up Emily Keyes on twitter and it seems that either she is closed to queries, or the entire agency is closed to queries, until January. It says nothing about being closed to queries on the agency website that I can find. Anyone know what's going on?

Edit: Ah ha, found it in a blog post under agency news. The entire agency is indeed closed to queries until January 2014.

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The agency tweeted that they are closed to queries until Jan.

I queried on 1/2 after they opened back up. Others on QT have heard back and I haven't heard back yet, I'm I'm guessing that's not good...

quianaa2001 said:

I queried on 1/2 after they opened back up. Others on QT have heard back and I haven't heard back yet, I'm I'm guessing that's not good...

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Not necessarily. Their agents are known to respond, whether to request or reject. You could be in an agent's "maybe" folder, maybe he/she is reading emails out of order, or perhaps they thought a response had already been sent to you but for some reason they got sidetracked. There can be dozens of reason why an agent doesn't respond. The best thing we writers can do is not dwell on it and keep moving forward. Who knows...you may get an unsuspected email from Foreword 3wks from now w/ a full request.

I just queried Emily Keyes today. She says she's looking for new adult, so we shall see what happens.

Has anyone had any further experience with Emily Keyes? Following the HarperVoyager open call, I submitted to her (dystopic sci-fi) at the very tail end of January, and she requested chapters yesterday. I'm very excited and just wanted to put my ear to the ground while I wait. Anyone have experience with her yet?

Thanks ahead of time!

Emily Keyes - Adult urban fantasy?

Anyone know if Emily Keyes accepts queries for adult urban fantasy?

Has anyone worked with Jen Karsbaek? She's doing pitch sessions at my local writing organization, but it doesn't look like she has any deals in PM listed.

Hi, aus10phile.

I queried Jen Karsbaek in March 2013, and she requested a full. I nudged her quite a few months later when I heard nothing back, and she said she always responds to fulls one way or another, but hadn't had time to read my mss. It's been more than a year, and she still hasn't let me know one way or another. I don't mind if she didn't want my mss--every agent to her own, of course--but I'm wondering how serious an agent she is with that, and especially if she hasn't had any deals yet. When I queried, she was brand new, so she ought to have had time.

By the way, there were several writers on this list who had fulls requested at the same time I did, and, like me, never heard back.

Foreword has changed their name to Fuse Literary. Emails are being forwarded from the old email account, though. No word on when they'll shut that down.

New website: http://www.fuseliterary.com/

Oldbrasscat said:

Foreword has changed their name to Fuse Literary. Emails are being forwarded from the old email account, though. No word on when they'll shut that down.

New website: http://www.fuseliterary.com/

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Any idea why they changed it?

I think it had to do with the name being too similar to ForeWord Magazine.

Good to know. Thanks!

Krista G. said:

Any idea why they changed it?

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They appear to be publishing now as well ...

http://www.fuseliterary.com/short-fuse/

Looks like Pam also moved to D4EO, which I'd missed.

Queried Sara Sciuto on 10/14/14 with YA Post-Apocalyptic. Auto-reply received. No response so assume no.

Do not bother querying Laurie McLean. I sent her a query a while back, and within seconds of hitting send, I received a generic rejection. Now I can take a rejection, but a few seconds after hitting send tells me she didn't even bother reading the query or sample pages. Save yourself the time and effort and pass on her.

amergina said:

Doesn't take more than a few seconds to decide whether or not you want to read on, TBH. You might have had the luck or unluck of sending your query as she was in her inbox.

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There is a lot of truth to this. Many agents hit their inboxes only once in a while, and then run through the whole thing. If you query right after one of these "binge reads," you'll wait a while for an answer, while someone else who queries just before one, or even during one, will get a very quick answer.

And yes, there are key points an agent (or assistant) looks for that sometimes kicks a query out after only a quick read, or just something as basic as word count or genre.

It's important to remember that these key points are often quite different from one agent to the next, so keep on trying.

Queried Ms. Keyes 25/9/15, got an R - form but friendly "Unfortunately, it is not right for my list." - 30/9/15. Adult Fantasy.

I queried Sara Sciuto on Sept 05, and now nearly a month later, I'm assuming no response means no thanks.