Profile brings audio production in-house as Dunnigan and McKenzie promoted

Profile is bringing its audio publishing in-house and is promoting commissioning editor Louisa Dunnigan to head of audio, while Nathaniel McKenzie takes up the new position of audio editor and rights executive.

January figures showed Profile’s audio publishing grew by 82% between 2020 and 2021, with 2021 audio bestsellers including Only the Disciplined Are Free by Ryan Holiday and The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave, selected as one of the best audiobooks of the year by Kobo.

Profile joined forces to publish audio with Little, Brown in January 2018, releasing audiobooks across all its imprints including Serpent’s Tail, Viper and Souvenir Press. Although audio will now come in-house, Little, Brown will still provide sales and distribution for the audio titles.

Its 2022 list will kick of with the return of author Janice Hallett and her new book The Twyford Code, which is currently in the top 100 on Audible. It will also be producing Cheerio titles, starting with Bacon in Moscow, read by Richard E Grant. Dunnigan will head the audio publishing programme, working with McKenzie in his newly created role.

The 2022 audio publishing programme includes a range of frontlist titles, as well as bestselling backlist titles, some to be published in audio for the first time. Serpent’s Tail classics coming in house include We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler and The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry, coinciding with its TV debut. Audio rights for The Essex Serpent were acquired from Jenny Hewson at Lutyens & Rubinstein. 

First-time audio editions of backlist classics include The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron on the Souvenir list and Profile’s What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School by Mark McCormack. Other highlights include Francis Fukuyama’s Liberalism and Its Discontents, and Oliver Bullough’s Butler to the World, read by the author.

"It has been a privilege to work with Little, Brown to publish our audiobooks in the past, and I am very proud to now be building Profile Audio’s publishing even further with colleagues across departments and the brilliant Nathaniel McKenzie," Dunnigan said. 

"Profile and its imprints publish a range of important, compelling and enjoyable books – it is hugely exciting to be able to bring these to life in another format, ensuring that audio is integrated into our publishing strategies and that our books are accessible to an even wider range of readers."

Recent audiobook successes include Robert Greene’s The Laws of Human Nature, a regular fixture on the Audible bestseller charts; The Appeal by Hallett, which was Profile’s first multi-voice production, and recorded a high number of pre-orders; Booker-shortlisted Washington Black and the Women’s Prize longlisted Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters and The Library by Arthur der Weduwen, which was selected as an Audiobook of the Week in the Times.

Managing director Andrew Franklin said: "We can all see that audio is an increasingly important part of publishing and making authors’ books available to readers in every possible format everywhere, so this is a great development for us. It has started like a rocket."