Sceptre pre-empts Thorpe’s ‘blisteringly funny’ novel Margo’s Got Money Troubles

Sceptre has acquired Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe, a “blisteringly funny and heartwarming novel about a young woman navigating a desperate lack of funds, new motherhood and becoming an adult, who gets creative on OnlyFans".

In her first deal since joining Sceptre, Ansa Khan Khattak pre-empted UK and Commonwealth excluding Canada rights from Allison Malecha on behalf of Michelle Brower at Trellis Literary Management. Rights have been sold to Jessica Williams at William Morrow in the US in an exclusive submission, and in Germany rights have sold to Ecco Verlag in a pre-empt. Sceptre will publish on 4th July 2024.

Margo’s Got Money Troubles follows a young mother struggling with a meagre bank account, a new baby and a supporting band of loved ones who both help and hinder, the synopsis begins: “As the child of a Hooters waitress and an ex-Pro-Wrestler, she’s always known she’d have to make it on her own. When she finds herself pregnant by her college professor – who is very keen not to be involved – she realises she will need cash fast.”

It continues: “At 20, alone with a baby, what Margo lacks in options she makes up for in ingenuity, and soon she has a plan: she’ll start an OnlyFans as an experiment, producing content and writing storylines unlike anything else out there.

"Help arrives in the form of her live-action role-playing flatmate Suzie, and her father, Jinx – a recovering addict and veteran of the wrestling world, who has experience of making an audience fall in love. Before she knows it, Margo is an online phenomenon. Could this be the answer to all of Margo’s problems, or does internet fame come with too high a price?”

Khan Khattak said: “I found it impossible not to fall for Margo and her crew. Margo is smart, funny and wildly creative – she sets up an OnlyFans when she’s backed into a corner, but soon discovers that she has a gift for writing scenes that go viral. In the way of ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ or ‘Juno’, Rufi shows how help can come from unlikely sources – I came to love and root for her slightly rag-tag group of supporters, almost as much as I loved Margo herself – and how life can be both hard-going and hilarious all at once.

“The novel also has important things to say about how society fails so many people with caring responsibilities, the perceptions of sex work, about community, creativity; I can’t imagine a more exciting first acquisition here at Sceptre.”

Thorpe is the author of three previous novels, has been longlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize, and shortlisted for the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize and the PEN/Faulkner award. She said: “I’m elated that Margo has found a home with the brilliant and insightful Ansa Khan Khattak at Sceptre. I put everything into this book, everything that mattered to me, and I know Ansa can perfectly champion both the riotous, comedic elements of the book, as well as its more philosophical questions about sex and art, love and power.”