It’s time for that question we hear more than any other from prospective authors and publishing hopefuls:
What would you love to see on submission? What’s top of your wishlist?
Please take a look at everyone’s answers below, and come back tomorrow for Day Four!
Juliet Pickering, Vice Head of Books
Like many others (readers and publishers!) I’d love some joyful fiction: it doesn’t have to be uncomplicated, but a story that draws on the best of humanity would be a delight to discover and share. A great love story; a couple of bickering but close siblings; the seasons of a long marriage… it can be any kind of relationship, but please give me hope!
Kate Burke, Senior Agent
I would love to find a dark and twisty slice of literary suspense (in the vein of Tana French or Liz Moore), a sweeping, multigenerational family story about grandmothers, mothers and daughters and a crime series featuring an usual and intriguing female lead character.
Sian Ellis-Martin, Associate Agent
The main things I’m looking for at the moment are an engrossing family story with warm and inviting writing (like Ann Patchett), a character focused upmarket crime novel (like NOTES ON AN EXECUTION), or a sapphic rom com or love story with a unique setting.
Isobel Dixon, Head of Books
I represent a robust list of clients, so am open for submissions only briefly each year. I might take on one new writer in 18 months, but my taste is broad: from suspense, crime and thriller (standalone and series), through to literary fiction and narrative non-fiction/memoir that teaches me something new about the world. Across genres, contemporary or historical, I care about the quality of each sentence, and intriguing characters who relate to each other in settings with texture and depth. I want to be moved, thrilled, surprised. Hard to pin down, but I know it when I read it.
Julian Friedmann, Chairman
I would never have expected to really enjoy a Romantasy thriller, but I did and it sold well. Which is not to say that I want more, but if I can indulge my own passion genres, it would be thrillers and espionage.
Finlay Charlesworth, Agent’s Assistant
I’m not currently open to submissions, but I would love a novel set in the world of theatre, or a fresh non-fiction perspective on sport, pop culture, and entertainment that combine piercing insight and analysis with the passion and love that all fans share.