Canongate's Dingley recruited at Sceptre

Canongate’s Jo Dingley is joining Sceptre as editorial director, with a particular focus on acquiring reading group and literary fiction for the list.  

Dingley will start on 1st March, working from Hachette’s new Edinburgh office.  

Currently commissioning editor at Canongate, Dingley has published a range of fiction that includes the Booker Prize-shortlisted The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste, Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, which was shortlisted for the Baileys and Wellcome prizes, Learwife by J R Thorp, Winchelsea by Alex Preston and The Little Snake by A L Kennedy.   

She has also published such non-fiction as Thin Places by Kerri ní Dochartaigh, If I Could Tell You Just One Thing by Richard Reed, Salt on Your Tongue by Charlotte Runcie, Rootbound by Alice Vincent and Jeanette Winterson’s Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere. 

Dingley, who was named as a Rising Star by The Bookseller in 2021, said of her new role: “I am utterly thrilled to be joining the superb editorial team at Sceptre, as well as the wider Hodder family. I have long admired their taste, confidence and brilliant publishing and I’m excited to help shape the future of the fiction list at Sceptre.” 

Carole Welch, publishing director of Sceptre, said: “I am greatly looking forward to Jo joining our team. She’s a highly talented, creative and energetic editor with a keen eye for books that have the potential to be critical and commercial hits, who leaves no stone unturned in helping her authors reach the widest possible audience, and who likes to set rather than follow trends. Her tastes are a great fit for our list and I have no doubt she will both enhance our current range with some wonderful additions and, with her determination to champion regional writers, develop it in exciting new directions.”