My Submissions Wishlist: Juliet Mushens
Since Mushens Entertainment is open to submissions and actively looking to sign new clients, we’ve asked our agents to sit down and tell us all about what’s on their wishlist. First up: the queen of commercial fiction herself, Juliet Mushens…
My taste in books encompasses a lot of genres and styles – from high fantasy to thriller and most things in between. However, no matter the genre, there are a few things which are always on my manuscript wishlist:
Novels which keep you guessing. I’m a big fan of twists and turns, and the kind of plot where you’re turning the pages wanting to find out where it goes – that can be in a commercial thriller or police procedural, but also in a historical novel or a commercial women’s fiction novel. Some examples of this: pretty much any Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child, The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed.
Fascinating characters. Some of my favourite characters in novels aren’t necessarily likeable or straightforward – but regardless, I was intrigued by their perspective and understood why they made the decisions they did even if I didn’t agree with them! Good examples of some of my favourite characters: Rachel Walsh (Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes), Libby Day (Dark Places by Gillian Flynn), Ifemelu (Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie), Malta (The Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb), and the unnamed protagonist of My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh.
Books with themes you want to talk about. I love the kind of book where your mind is racing afterwards and you can’t decide how you feel about what happened. Some of my favourites include: The Mothers by Brit Bennett, Lullaby by Leila Slimani, Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.
Twists which make you reconsider everything that came before. I never like a twist for the sake of it, and feel strongly that the author should never mislead the reader, merely misdirect us. But some of my favourite twists in novels are those in My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, Poppet by Mo Hayder, and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.
I also have a tendency to want to read fictional explorations of real life topics I find fascinating and/or important. At the moment I’ve been consuming a lot about topics such as catfishing (think The Tinder Swindler or Anna Delvey), cults and fanaticism (think Scientology and the Aftermath), coercive control, high-school shootings, motherhood, DNA/ancestry sites and the families they unravel, armchair detectives obsessed with true crimes and how the families feel about them… (Wow, I must be a hoot at dinner parties!)
Generally speaking though, if it’s an intriguing hook with characters with depth – I’m open to reading it, and actively looking to sign new clients!