Meet the Mills & Boon Cherish and RIVA Editorial Team - Plus find out about our Fast Track Submission Event!

Welcome to the home of contemporary romance!

We’re the Mills & Boon Cherish and RIVA editors and we are actively looking for new voices to join our group of talented authors, so we’re here today to tell you about the series we acquire for.

And it just gets better… we’re currently offering a fast track submission event! Anyone who sends us their first chapter and synopsis before 23rd April will hear back from us less than ONE MONTH after the closing date, before the 18th May.

The email address to send your submission to is romancefasttrack@hqnuk.co.uk Please attach your first chapter and short synopsis (1-2 sides) to the email as well as a short query letter, letting us know how much of the manuscript is complete. Please note, we’ll be looking at only one submission per person.

Without further ado, let’s get to grips with what the team is looking for! We acquire for both Cherish and RIVA. Let’s kick off with a look at the world of Cherish…

Cherish offers readers a romantic, uplifting story that captures the glorious rush of falling in love. The tone of the series is warm and emotional with well-loved romantic themes such as babies, weddings, single mums and royalty. These stories are all about moving the reader –and getting totally carried away by the emotional connection building between the hero and heroine.

Speaking of the heroine - for Cherish, she is really key to the romance. Readers need to be able to relate to her, laugh with her, cry with her and imagine she could be their friend. Remember, it’s through the heroine’s eyes that we fall in love with the hero!

Our heroes are alpha but attainable – they’re not all super rich international tycoons (although some might be!). They’re successful in their own right and should be a strong man our heroine would aspire to be with, the kind of man you would hope to meet in real life.

What about sensuality level? Well, these stories are certainly high on emotional and sensual tension but low on explicit sexual detail - that’s left to the imagination.

So, from one fantasy to another… here comes RIVA!

RIVA offers a contemporary twist on classic themes. Here, 21st Century alpha males take centre stage, but they have to share it with their spirited, feisty heroines who always give as good as they get!

In RIVA you’ll find editorial that pushes the boundaries of usual series themes (check out Fiona Harper’s Swept Off Her Stilettos, which is in the first person or Nikki Logan’s Mr Right at the Wrong Time where the hero is married!).

Every story has a high level of sensual tension, but with varying levels of explicit detail, against a backdrop of fabulous, mostly urban, cosmopolitan settings. This is quintessential romance for the modern day!

RIVA and Cherish may sound quite different, however they do have some things in common…

No matter whether your story is flirty and edgy or warm and cosy, we’re looking for stories that have happy endings and a sense of joyful escapism! Since these books are no more than 50,000 words, the main focus is the romance itself – whether your story is about a gorgeous cowboy and a single mum, or a single girl in the city, it should be driven by the characters themselves and their growing feelings for each other.

If you have any questions you’d like to ask us about your submissions then please leave a comment below and we will answer your query asap!

It’s goodbye from us for now, but we can’t wait to read your entries!

Bryony, Meg, Anna and Charlotte xx