Manuscript Wishlist – Sphere Commissioning Editor Manpreet Grewal

This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.

Manpreet Grewal is a commissioning editor for Sphere, which is Little, Brown’s commercial imprint. She commissions across all genres of women’s fiction, acquiring everything from romantic comedy and sagas to debut and book club fiction.

Sphere is the big commercial imprint of Little, Brown and we’re all about publishing great stories that will strike a chord with as many people as possible. I’m very lucky to have the enviable task of acquiring women’s fiction, which is a varied and rewarding remit. I’m not a big fan of working on the same kind of thing all the time so my role gives me the opportunity to work on everything that a commercial female reader might want to read – romantic comedy, historical fiction, sagas, book club novels. The list goes on!

I work closely with Carole Matthews and Jenny Colgan, and my own authors include the lovely Vanessa Greene, whose novels The Vintage Teacup Club and The Seafront Tea Rooms have enchanted readers who are looking for multi-voiced narratives centred on strong female friendship. I recently acquired two new adult novels by the beloved Sarra Manning and I’m so looking forward to working with her. What Milo Saw by Virginia Macgregor is a debut I’m extremely excited about – it’s a big story about a small boy who sees the world a little differently and I think readers everywhere are going to fall in love with it. Lisa Dickenson is another of my authors and she wrote The Twelve Dates of Christmas (winner of Novelicious’s Debut of the Year award!) and You Had Me at Merlot – they’re romantic comedies that will have you falling off your seat in fits of giggles! Lisa’s novels have been published as ebook serialisations and we’re publishing The Twelve Dates of Christmas in paperback next year and I just know that publication is going to be so much fun.

So my taste is pretty broad! But then women’s fiction is a HUGE umbrella and so much falls under this label – and that’s what I love about it. And even though I’m looking at lots of different types of novels the underlying qualities of what I want from a manuscript remain the same. I want interesting and relatable characters, I want a story that’s told in a compelling and engaging way, I want writing that feels fresh. Ultimately I’m looking for novels that can be summed up in a couple of sentences but that give so much more when you actually read them – this is so important for a commercial imprint like Sphere. I love multi-generational tales and novels full of secrets waiting to be uncovered, but the thing that really, REALLY excites me is when I read something that’s been done in a slightly different way – a flawed heroine that conflicts the reader (like Gone Girl), a brilliant concept (think Life After Life), an emotional rollercoaster like nothing I’ve experienced before (Me Before You). And an author who isn’t afraid to push the boundaries of the genre they’re writing in, while still maintaining awareness of their market, is the cherry on top of the cake. Nope, I’m not asking for much at all!

You can find out more information about Sphere’s women’s fiction platform, the Little Book Café, on their Facebook page and Twitter @littlebookcafe. Follow Manpreet on Twitter @ManpreetGrewal7.