SPOTLIGHT FEATURE: John Cusick from Folio Literary Management

Good morning!

Today we’re bringing you an interview with the wonderful John Cusick from Folio Literary Management.

John is a literary agent and the senior vice president at Folio Lit, and is also an author in his own right (check out his middle-grade series, Dimension Why). He represents a diverse list of voices in new adult, young adult, and middle-grade.

He’s drawn to boundary pushers, and those personal, dangerous, life-saving stories that have young people desperate to read them. He loves the strange, iconoclastic, and unusual, and is drawn to contemporary realistic stories with strong hooks, as well as fresh fantasy and speculative fiction set in our world and others.

Most importantly, he’s looking for page turners that really move readers, and character-driven work that connects like an emotional gut-punch.

“The thing that is really going to distinguish you in this competitive market is a very well-conceived idea for your book.”

Hi John, thank you so much for speaking with us today. We’re excited to hear all about your wishlist and what you’re looking for in queries!

Q. You are an author and describe yourself as an editorial and creative agent. How do you think this influences your work as an agent?

I would definitely describe myself as an editorial/creative agent, and I think being a writer myself is part of the reason for this. I’m able to work in the nuts and bolts of the creative and editorial stuff for my clients. And I think this occurs on a more subtle level too, like when I see an author struggling with a particular element, I can sort of tell what’s going on psychologically and what might be blocking them, and I can really relate to the struggle and offer advice and perspective.  

So I think having that kind of editorial sense, but also knowing what it’s like to be a neurotic writer myself, helps me be a good advocate and sort of career caretaker.

Q. What’s at the top of your wish-list?

In the YA space I really love anything with a hint of the fantastical or paranormal in it. I love fantasy set in other worlds, but also things set in our world that have fantastical elements or even a sci-fi or elevated element. I always reference Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which is a story about a break up, but it’s got this sci-fi element that just makes it more involved and interesting.

I’m also really eager to see teams solving mysteries and unearthing layers of secrets, and old secrets coming to light. I’m seeing a lot of dark academia in that space and I love that, anything comparable to Wednesday I’m into.

In middle grade I’m looking for a lot of the same, maybe with a slightly lighter tone, but stuff that is about coming of age, that’s contemporary realistic, but maybe with an extra kind of fantastical or sci-fi element that kind of elevates things. 

And then on the adult/new-adult side I’m really eager to see romances and rom-coms with characters in their early to late 20s. I’m also looking for sci-fi, horror and fantasy.

I feel like the books that I represent are ones the same person could read throughout the years of their lives, and would be able to have these different reading experiences as they go.

Q. Is there any genre (or themes/topics) you’d rather not receive?

I don’t do a lot of picture books – I do have a few picture book clients, but I’m not really taking on many more. So picture books and author/illustrators are not for me, but we have a lot of other agents at Folio Lit who are looking for this sort of thing so it’s worth checking them out. 

That said, I am looking for graphic novelists, so if you’re a graphic novelist or graphic novel author/illustrator I am interested in those materials. 

I don’t want to say no to anything specifically because everything depends upon the project, but I would say I tend not to be a guy for sports books. I’m also really not a fan of passive protagonists – and by that I mean novels where the drama comes from a lot of really bad things happening to a character who doesn’t deserve it and is just surviving and living through it. There’s nothing wrong with those stories but they’re just not for me. I would rather have a version of the story where that character is also a serial killer or a hacker, and there’s some form of extra proactiveness to them and they’re a more spicy main character.

Q. What do you want to see in a query letter? And what do you hate?

I think the best query opens with immediately letting the agent know the market for the book (so if it’s MG, YA, or adult), what the genre is, and the wordcount. Getting those in at the start is really important because it gives context for everything that comes up next (and makes it clear to agents if it’s something that might work for them). Then I think it’s onto the basics, so letting us know who the main character is, what the main conflict they’re coming up against is, and how they are going to tackle it. You then expand from there and go into more detail.

In terms of the things I don’t want to see, I would suggest not writing your query in the voice of your character. I would look at your query as a business letter, where you want to eventually work alongside this agent, so you want them to get to know you, and then they’ll get to know your character through your words and the project itself. And the other thing I notice that is sometimes a mistake, and an understandable one, is writers will sometimes open their query with a long story about themselves and their writing journey and what this story means to them and whatnot, which is great, but this should come much later. I need to know what the book is first before I hear the backstory. So always open with that pitch first so the agent can get their head around it, and then once you’ve established what the book is, then you can focus on yourself as the author. And keep the bio short, no longer than a paragraph.  

Q. Same question when it comes to the synopsis. What should writers do? What should they avoid?

I don’t usually think of a synopsis as a separate document or element that is abstracted from the query. I think the synopsis is usually taken up by one or two paragraphs that are in the middle of the letter. So we might have that set up pitch like I described, and then the next two or three short paragraphs describe the synopsis of the book. 

I think that those synopsis paragraphs should let us know who the main character is, what is their world we’re stepping into, what is the challenge they’re going to face, and how will they get through it. You don’t necessarily need to go through and spoil the ending, but you do need to let us know enough that we understand what’s at stake and what we’re reading.

Q. What are you looking for in the opening pages of a novel? What really excites you?

I think first of all, your first page should definitely do the work of grabbing your reader. You don’t want the excuse that it gets really good on page ten, it needs to have something interesting from the start. For me personally, no matter the age range or genre, I want to see a book open with a scene. Sometimes starting with a monologue about what is happening might work for middle-grade, but I would rather be thrown immediately into the story and the first scene. So I always recommend that authors open with a scene, open with an image and a character in a moment of tension that we can get invested in and enjoy, and then on page two or three is when we can start to get more context.

I also find that sometimes over-chatty narrators can be an issue, and this ties into the thing about opening with a long monologue, and especially when writing for younger kids. I think there’s sometimes a tendency to write the way a kid speaks and it can be all over the place, which is fine, but as the narrator this character still needs to be able to guide the reader through the story. I see that sort of ‘stream-of-consciousness’ character a lot and I think it’s quite difficult to make it work.

I want to see a narrator who is telling me a story in a focused way. And the other thing I’ll add is I would suggest avoiding too much direct address to the reader, as this reminds the reader that they exist and actually takes us out of the story, rather than pulling us in. As readers we want to be able to disappear into the narrative, and referring to the reader makes this impossible.

Q. You represent authors from across the world – which can be rarer for an agent – is there a reason for this?

I’ve actually never really thought about it. If someone sends me an amazing project and they’re located in Singapore or Sydney or Canada or someplace that’s not US local, if it’s amazing, and I think US readers or US publishers will buy it, then I’m excited to work with them. There can be concerns about time zones and author events and things like that, but if a book is great, I definitely wouldn’t let that stop me from getting excited about it and offering on it.

Q. Any final words of advice for authors in the querying process?

The two major things to keep in mind is that you want to be as professional and by the book as you reasonably can, meaning looking up the agent’s guidelines and following them and sending a professional letter that’s well formatted, all of that stuff. And I think on the other end of that spectrum, the thing that is really going to distinguish you in this competitive market is a very well-conceived idea for your book. So that means it has to have something really promising that makes the target audience really eager to pick it up and read it. You need to know and consider what’s in it for them, and what is going to make them excited to pick it up? And is there something about that trope or idea that’s kind of familiar but you’ve turned on its head, so we know that we’re going to get something kind of spicy or different or unexpected, and that there’s going to be a surprise in there. And I think if your idea doesn’t quite have that, then work on it. Work on your concept and work on how you describe your concept. Sometimes when I’m speaking to authors about their query letters, if I’m giving them a critique, I’ll realise that their actual idea is super high concept and hooky and interesting, but sometimes it does take a beat to figure out what the different thing is and to be able to pitch it as that. So finding that and bringing it to the forefront, so your project really sticks out for its unique vision, is the thing that’s going to really help you. 

Q. Is there anything else you would like to add?

I just want to emphasise that I’m actively looking for new clients, and that I’m really excited to continue to see authors from historically underrepresented backgrounds in publishing, whatever that looks like. And that doesn’t mean that the story needs to be anything in particular, but just that it’s from authors who we don’t get to hear from. 

The full interview will be uploaded to John’s AgentMatch profile.

In the meantime, if you’re struggling with your query letter and synopsis, do check out our free resources on our website. We have lots of info to help you on your way. Or, better still, if you’re a member with us, our lovely Writers Support team will be happy to offer you a free query letter review!