Reese’s Book Club, a brand of Reese Witherspoon’s media company Hello Sunshine, spotlights titles by women authors, stamping each month’s chosen book with its seal of approval. Since its founding in 2017, RBC has heralded books by debut authors including Bobu Babalola and DéLana R.A. Dameron and established authors including Xochitl Gonzalez and Celeste Ng. And since 2020, in partnership with We Need Diverse Books, Hello Sunshine has been boosting unagented, unpublished women and nonbinary authors through a program called LitUp.
LitUp connects with authors at the manuscript stage, long before a book makes it to print. The program includes an educational retreat, mentorship from an established RBC author, introductions to agents and editors, and marketing support at the publishing stage. “It’s a labor of love from the entire company,” said Gretchen Schreiber, manager of books at Hello Sunshine, who conceived of the original idea and sought sponsorship. RBC brand director Jane Lee agreed, “We’re making sure we use the platform and the power that we have.”
“This is definitely our do-good platform, our pure mission-based objective,” said Kristen Perla, Hello Sunshine’s SVP of growth and marketing. “There’s no revenue generation on our behalf at all, and we have a model where we work with partners to help fund it. Their dollars go directly towards the programming and We Need Diverse Books, so we can get it up and running each year.” Sponsoring partners have included the Emerson Collective, Google, Buick, and TikTok.
To date, LitUp has convened three cohorts and supported 16 debut writers. An average of five fellows participate each year, and the program’s first success story, 2021 LitUp fellow Chatham Greenfield, will publish their YA debut, Time and Time Again (Bloomsbury), on July 23. Time and Time Again is a rom-com about two disabled Jewish lesbians who get caught together in a time loop and, by repeating the same day, gain insight into their social circles and anxieties.
“As someone who grew up on Nora Ephron and Nia Vardalos films, I’ve always been a huge fan of the romance genre,” Greenfield said. “It’s extra special to publish a book that feels so true to me and my own marginalized identities.”
During LitUp’s mentorship process, Greenfield was paired with Laura Taylor Namey, the author of the 2020 RBC pick A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, published by Atheneum. “The most helpful advice she gave me was to pinpoint what my main character wanted more than anything and follow that thread from beginning to end,” Greenfield said.
After Time and Time Again sold in a five-way auction, Greenfield worked with Alex Borbolla, senior editor at Bloomsbury Children’s Publishing. “She helped me further develop the relationships at the heart of the book and keep all the complexities of a time loop straight,” said Greenfield, who now is represented by Jemiscoe Chambers-Black at Andrea Brown Literary Agency and will publish another YA romance with Bloomsbury in 2025.
‘How Do We Help Stack the Decks?’
The strategy for LitUp developed during weekly meetings about potential Reese’s Book Club picks—books that had already been approved by publishing’s gatekeepers. While reflecting on success stories, the Hello Sunshine team also discussed the roadblocks faced by debut authors, particularly those with marginalized identities and a structural lack of access to agents and editors.
“We started to identify gaps and narratives that weren’t represented, knowing a lot of publishers have commitments to the same things that we do” in terms of inclusion, said Hello Sunshine CEO Sarah Harden. In addition, she wondered, “How do we help stack the decks and provide visibility” for early-career creators?
“It’s hard to tentpole a book and get it out there, especially an author doesn't have an Instagram profile of 20,000 people,” Harden continued. “We have real marketing muscle in the book space.” By “removing structural barriers and creating some wind at the back of these authors,” she said, “the hope is not only to set them up to get a book deal, but set them up to get a better book deal than they might have gotten on their own.” RBC activated its publishing network and worked with WNDB to identify agents and editors to work with LitUp fellows, either by doing informational calls or reading queries and manuscripts.
WNDB used its clout, too, to spread the word about the fellowship across social media and in its newsletter. “We activated our network to encourage diverse writers from all walks of life to apply,” said WNDB board chair Dhonielle Clayton. The organization also celebrated successful applicants and book deals, increasing their visibility across platforms.
LitUp may sound like a golden ticket, but competition is fierce and the anti-bias selection process is rigorous. Applicants must send a complete manuscript for review—a finished manuscript signals a “motivated and committed” writer, Harden said—with WNDB managing submissions. “WNDB hires a diverse team of judges who have backgrounds in editorial, authenticity reads, and reviewers to carefully read and assess the applications across several rounds,” said Clayton. From hundreds of submissions, “we cull the applications down to the top 10 finalists before passing the baton to Hello Sunshine to select the five fellows.”
LitUp fellows attend an all-expenses-paid, five-day meeting in Witherspoon’s home city of Nashville, organized by the company Madcap Retreats, a frequent WNDB collaborator. “The idea is to hand the authors a toolkit for publishing and also to demystify the industry in as straightforward a manner as possible,” said Madcap founder Natalie C. Parker, who calls the retreat “a Publishing 101 course on agencies, branches of a publishing house, and vocabulary words. I started Madcap Retreats with the express purpose of demystifying the industry, and I primarily work to create opportunity and a knowledge base for marginalized creators.”
Clayton agreed that “the most important elements of jumpstarting the literary careers of underrepresented authors into the publishing industry are radical transparency and the demystification of the publishing machine, so that the writers can make knowledgeable and strategic choices as they begin their careers.”
LitUp’s organizers and fellows are beginning to see the fruits of their labor. Nine of the first 11 fellows through the program are now agented, Schreiber said, and six of these debut authors (including Greenfield) have sold books.
Harden cheers the program, which she feels epitomizes Hello Sunshine’s positive branding. “I think the antidote to the isolation and fear is collaboration and realizing you're all in it together,” she said. “We’re a mission-driven company," and when it comes to LitUp’s combination of sponsorship, mentorship, and diverse debut authors, "there's no better expression of our mission coming to life."
