Rebrand and expansion at Little, Brown Book Group’s audio imprint

Little, Brown Book Group is rebranding its audiobook imprint, Hachette Audio, to Little, Brown Audio with immediate effect.

The imprint began publishing audiobooks 20 years ago and now has a list of nearly 3,500 titles. It publishes about 400 audiobooks per year. This includes the British Book Award-shortlisted Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith – all six titles of which have each sold over 100,000 downloads according to the publisher – as well as Hachette’s biggest fiction audiobook, Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.

In non-fiction, audiobooks published by the imprint include Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, Deep Work by Cal Newport, and Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs, which became Little, Brown’s first audiobook to pass the 100,000-download milestone in 2016. Books have been voiced by the likes of Tom Hollander, Adjoa Andoh, Robert Glenister, Jeremy Irons, Juliet Stevenson, Benedict Cumberbatch and Sir Tom Courtenay.

The team recently expanded to a team of three full-time roles, as the audio assistant used to be a shared role with rights. However Jessica Callaghan was recently promoted to the full-time role of audio assistant editor. Audio editor Louise Harvey is currently on parental leave and Charlotte Brown is covering. Audio publisher Sarah Shrubb founded the list in 2003.

She said: “The imprint has grown substantially over the past two decades in terms of both the audio team and the volume of titles published, and our new identity reflects Little, Brown’s ongoing positioning of audio at the forefront of its publishing output. We are very proud to publish audiobooks from across all of Little, Brown’s imprints, covering pretty much every genre of fiction and non-fiction, and our rebranding reflects that.

 “When I started Little, Brown’s audiobook list in 2003, none of us foresaw the growth of recent years, and it’s been an utter joy to watch the explosion in popularity and sales. Little, Brown Audio’s fresh identity and newly expanded team mean we are set to continue to be at the forefront of the growing audiobook market and to carry on creating award-winning, attention-grabbing audiobooks.”

Lucy Malagoni, executive publisher of audiobooks, added: “Audio is one of the most vibrant, dynamic areas of the industry and it’s such a privilege to work with Sarah and our exceptional, pioneering team at Little, Brown Audio as we continue to take our authors’ work to the broadest possible audience.”