Fuse Literary Acquires Ambush Books

SAN FRANCISCO - Feb. 18, 2015 - PRLog -- February 18, 2015—San Francisco Bay Area—Hoping to disprove the myth that tweens and teens don’t read ebooks, hybrid literary agency Fuse Literary’s digital-first publishing arm, Short Fuse Publishing, has acquired the rights to the titles previously published by three-year-old Ambush Books.

Founded by award-winning children’s book author Douglas Rees and Fuse Literary partner Laurie McLean, Ambush Books concentrated on reissuing previously published, out-of-print books for middle grade and young adult readers. The publisher also put out two YA anthologies, Magical Mayhem featuring paranormal short stories and Love Stinks that contained anti-romance short stories for teens.

“Once we had Short Fuse up and running, it made the most sense to merge the two publishers I had a hand in creating,” McLean said. “Ambush Books can really benefit from all the new technology and multimedia initiatives we’re trying at Short Fuse.”

Author Douglas Rees is pleased that his historical YA fiction has found new life at the innovative hybrid publisher.

“There’s an idea in the collective intelligence of publishing that teens won’t read historical fiction no matter how good it is. This seems odd given that the historical fiction genre is on a roll at every other age level. I’m hopeful that this new Short Fuse Publishing program will work to find the teen audience for stories that use the past to illuminate the present, as the best historical novels have always done. I believe teens, like everyone else, yearn for that kind of illumination. The historical fiction equivalent of The Hunger Games is going to be written, or has been written and is looking for its audience. Hopefully, Short Fuse will be the house that brings them together,” Rees said.

Fuse Literary co-founder Gordon Warnock heads up Short Fuse Publishing.

“Since day one, Fuse and SFP have been all about taking absolutes and disproving them. We pride ourselves in finding ways to make the difficult or the unusual not only work, but thrive,” Warnock said. “We actually love seeing pessimism in publishing. People are fond of saying certain things simply won’t happen. We see that as opportunity, room for growth. Ambush had a lot of moxie and a great vision that we think will greatly benefit from our approach and our resources.”

About Fuse Literary

Fuse Literary is a hybrid literary agency with offices in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Vancouver, which blends the knowledge and skills of traditional publishing with the brash new opportunities engendered by digital publishing, self-publishing, ebooks, and technology. Partners Laurie McLean and Gordon Warnock are joined at Fuse by agents Emily Keyes, Connor Goldsmith, Michelle Richter, Sara Sciuto and Jen Karsbaek. Visit the website, http://fuseliterary.com for more information. Or follow us on Twitter @FuseLiterary.