Octopus launches new narrative non-fiction imprint Endeavour

Hachette's Octopus Publishing Group is launching a new narrative non-fiction imprint aiming to become "a home for new ideas, inspiring stories and fresh takes on the world".

Called Endeavour, the imprint will be headed up by publishing director Claudia Connal and include popular science, culture, business and science titles. It will be launched with a list including Netflix founder Marc Randolph’s That Will Never Work, first announced yesterday. Coming out in November 2019, the book promises to tell the inside story of the media company.

Another early title will see forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes examine the psychological causes of some of the most extreme forms of human behaviour. Her book, The Dark Side of the Mind: True stories from my life as a forensic psychologist, was secured by Octopus in a five-publisher auction and will be published in May.

Connal is a former editorial director at Simon & Schuster and Little, Brown. She joined Octopus in 2018 to head up the publisher’s new strand of non-fiction, working across categories from smart thinking to popular psychology and business. Octopus said she had built up a wide-ranging list and Endeavour would be an "important step" in developing its non-fiction.

Connal said: “As our name suggests, we will strive for the very best for our authors and their books. I am thrilled to be working with Octopus to establish Endeavour as a home for new ideas, inspiring stories and fresh takes on the world. I am incredibly proud of the talented authors we have signed up so far.”

Other books on the new imprint’s list include Gender Mosaic: Beyond the myth of the male and female brain by Professor Daphna Joel and Luba Vikhanski. The September release promises a look at the science of gender, investigating many of our false assumptions.

Following in 2020 will be online disinformation tome The Reality Game: How the next wave of technology will break the truth by Samuel Woolley and forensic science title Murder is Her Hobby by Bruce Goldfarb, to be published in January and February respectively.

Elsewhere, happiness consultant and School of Life lecturer Samantha Clarke provides a roadmap to career satisfaction in Love It Or Leave It: How to be happy at work, out in March 2020. LSE lecturer Dr Connson Chou Locke will expand on a Guardian masterclass explaining how to develop personal power and influence with Making Your Voice Heard: How to own your space, access your inner power and become influential. The book will be published in May 2020.

Denise Bates, Octopus Group publishing director, said: “Since joining us last year Claudia has acquired a superb roster of authors and started to build a wonderfully broad-based list. This new imprint marks a further important step for Octopus in our move into serious narrative non-fiction publishing."

Last month, in a separate development, Hachette announced Jake Lingwood, who left Penguin Random House's Ebury division in October after more than 20 years, is joining Octopus Publishing to launch a new non-fiction imprint specialising in first-person narratives. The name of the imprint and its launch titles are yet to be announced.