Dialogue to become standalone division of Hachette UK as founder Lovegrove joins board 

Dialogue Books, currently an imprint of Little, Brown, is to expand and become a standalone division of Hachette UK with its publisher and founder Sharmaine Lovegrove promoted to managing director and joining the company’s board.  

The news has already gathered a positive reaction from the rest of the trade, with agent Nelle Andrew saying it would "have an impact on our business for decades to come".

Lovegrove founded Dialogue Books in 2017 to champion inclusivity, publish voices from marginalised communities and target consumers from audience groups not traditionally served by mainstream publishing. 

As a Hachette UK division, it will now comprise two imprints: Dialogue Books, publishing upmarket, literary fiction and non-fiction, and a new, as-yet-unnamed imprint focusing on commercial and mass-market titles across fiction and non-fiction.

It will operate on a significantly expanded scale, growing its output rapidly to publish around 80 new titles a year by 2026. Dialogue Books will also include an advisory board made up of individuals from a range of sectors who have a keen interest in literature and are engaged in innovation and committed to inclusion.

Lovegrove will return from parental leave to take up her new role on 1st September and the new division will have its own management team and dedicated editorial, marketing and publicity departments. Charlie King will become executive chair of Dialogue, in addition to his role as m.d. of Little, Brown.

“I am deeply humbled and extremely motivated to take up this unique and exciting opportunity as m.d. of Dialogue Books," Lovegrove said. "The focus on the division will be on innovation, inspiration and inclusion, building on areas we have excelled in culturally as an imprint and growing exponentially in terms of team, authors, genres and routes to readers.

“I’m excited to continue working with Charlie King, who has been instrumental in Dialogue’s ongoing success and has believed in me since we met. I am delighted that my hard work and commitment to publishing for everyone, everywhere, is the key driver for my position on the Hachette UK Board, where I hope to make a meaningful contribution to all areas of the business. 

“I’d like to thank David Shelley for his inspirational vision, which invigorates me to do better and work harder and smarter, and the Dialogue team – Millie Seaward, Emily Moran and Amy Baxter – for all their work, passion, creativity and commitment to our books and authors, as well as to Clare Smith, executive publisher, literary, who has been an incredible support and mentor and who I shall miss working with greatly.”

In 2018 Lovegrove was recognised as FutureBook’s Person of the Year, and this year she was shortlisted for Editor of the Year at the British Book Awards. Dialogue’s recent publishing successes have included Brit Bennett’s Women’s Prize-shortlisted hit The Vanishing Half and Paul Mendez’s British Book Award-shortlisted Rainbow Milk. Dialogue’s publishing programme for 2023 includes gal-dem founder Liv Little’s debut novel Rosewater and This Thread of Gold: A Celebration of Black Womanhood by Cat White.

As part of its expansion, Dialogue Books will also host a new residency scheme, offering an individual a year within Dialogue Books to develop projects. Rather than offering a commissioning role to the resident, it will offer the opportunity to develop the Dialogue brand beyond the initial aim of buying inclusive books, "whether through talent-seeking initiatives, enhancement, or something yet unthought of".

King said: “Dialogue Books has added a huge amount to our business – creatively, culturally and commercially – over the past five years, as of course has Sharmaine herself. I am enormously proud that Dialogue is to become a separate division of Hachette. I look forward to supporting and working alongside Sharmaine and her team as they embark on this exciting new stage of their journey."

David Shelley, c.e.o. of Hachette UK, said: “Dialogue has had a spectacular first five years, and I am hugely excited about what it can achieve as an expanded division within Hachette. Sharmaine is dynamic, inspirational and keenly attuned to the tastes of readers everywhere – including those previously ill-served by our industry – and I know that she will lead Dialogue to new heights. I am also really pleased that she will be joining the Hachette UK board, where I know she will make a terrific contribution.” 

The announcement, made on 11th July, was greeted with enthusiasm by authors, publishers, agents and booksellers alike. Nelle Andrew of Rachel Mills Literary told The Bookseller it was “an example of the kind of initiative our industry should be championing which is to take an imprint that works and is doing something unique, really well, and expand it into a division with more autonomy, ambition and wider reaching goals”.

She said: “I just think Sharmaine is exceptional. To grow an imprint into a division is no mean feat - when was the last time we saw this created in our industry? The jobs it will create, the books it will herald and the general ethos that will now be plaited into our industry infrastructure, will have an impact on our business for decades to come. That it is heralded by a Black woman who champions a whole array of voices speaks volumes to a business where I could once count the amount of editors who were not Caucasian on one hand.”

Natasha Carthew, founder of Class Festival, said the move ensured Dialogue “can truly make sure diversity and originality continues to be at the heart of everything they do”. She said: “This is brilliant news for marginalised communities, especially working-class writers, and its larger output means the incredible work they publish, now and in the future, will reach a wider audience. Dialogue’s dedication to innovation and inclusion also means authentic voices will be heard far and wide, which as artistic director of Class Festival, I know can only be a good thing!”

Author Damian Barr said: “Dialogue is about who gets to write books but also who reads them and who works on them. Sharmaine and the team she’s nurtured understand that a focus on publishing people from marginalised and minority backgrounds makes for greater commercial success, because it recognises the diversity of readers and grows the space for all our stories.”

Dan and Emily Ross, co-owners of Bristol bookshop Storysmith, praised the dedication of Lovegrove and the Dialogue team. They said: “The imprint was only very young when we first opened our doors as a bookshop, and even then Sharmaine was such a hands-on advocate for her authors that it made a real impression on us as new booksellers. To see the industry-shaping imprint evolve into a fully-fledged division of Hachette is testament to that passion and - equally importantly - nous for literary quality across a far wider talent-pool than many publishers have the sensitivity to champion in the right way.”