Joffe Books’ romance imprint, Choc Lit, is expanding with bold growth plans, a fresh acquisition strategy, and a marquee four-book deal with bestselling author Ellie Henderson.

Under the leadership of Managing Director Emilie Marneur and Head of Choc Lit Becky Slorach, Choc Lit will publish a dynamic mix of debut, self-published and previously published authors across diverse romance genres, from spicy and dark romances to rom-coms, seasonal romantic fiction and sagas.

Jasper Joffe, CEO of Joffe Books, acquired Choc Lit’s 500-title catalogue in 2023 and has since revitalized its readership. “We’ve successfully breathed new life into Choc Lit’s beloved backlist, bringing well-loved authors like Sue Moorcroft, Jane Lovering, and Christina Courtenay to new digital audiences. Now, it’s time to push further — expanding our romance publishing, building an engaged community of readers, and turning exceptional books into bestsellers.”

Marneur — formerly at Amazon Publishing, home to the leading romance imprint Montlake — said: “Joffe Books has spent a decade mastering crime and thriller digital publishing and building an unparalleled community of devoted readers. Now, we’re bringing the same expertise, focus and energy to establish Choc Lit as a bold and ambitious digital-first romance publisher.”

A Major Acquisition: Ellie Henderson’s Four-Book Deal

As part of this ambitious expansion, Choc Lit has signed a major four-book deal with award-winning romance author Ellie Henderson. Slorach acquired world rights to Henderson’s new Scottish Highlands romance series, launching Christmas 2025.

Set in the stunning Scottish Highlands by Loch Lomond, the series weaves together love, nostalgia, and personal transformation. The first book follows Jessica, who retreats to her childhood home in Rowan Bay for a quiet Christmas after heartbreak, only to be find Reuben — her brother’s childhood friend and former tormentor — unexpectedly back in town. As snow falls, old tensions ignite a surprising attraction, making Jessica question where her heart truly belongs.

Becky Slorach says: “I’m thrilled to be working with Ellie again. She writes breathtaking romances set in stunning locations. This new Scottish Highlands series is a wonderful addition to our seasonal romance list and perfectly showcases our Choc Lit strategy.”

Ellie Henderson adds: “I am so excited to be working on this new series with the brilliant team at Choc Lit. Their enthusiasm for my Arran series was wonderful, and I am thrilled to be collaborating with Becky and her colleagues again on this new series set by Loch Lomond.”

This acquisition is one of many exciting 2025 releases including:

• Spicy romances from bestselling authors Juliana Stone, Lily Parker, and Katie Evergreen;

• Rom-coms and seasonal fiction from Ellie Henderson and K.T. Dady;

• Historical sagas from RNA finalist Jan Baynham.

Slorach and editor Jasmine Callaghan are actively acquiring new authors to join the Choc Lit family and can be contacted at Becky@joffebooks.com and Jasmine@joffebooks.com.

We’re delighted to announce the relaunch of the gripping Calladine & Bayliss crime thriller series by bestselling author Helen H. Durrant! To celebrate the incredible milestone of 3 million books read, we are publishing this unputdownable crime series with beautiful, new print and eBook covers by our lead designer Nick Castle.

A message from Helen H. Durrant:

Hello reader,

If you haven’t read any of the Calladine and Bayliss books before, this little introduction will hopefully give you a flavour of what to expect. I’ve written twelve books in the series and by now, I know the pair very well indeed; their background, their families and what makes them tick. Hopefully they come across to you the reader as a duo with personalities you can relate to.

Both Tom and Ruth work and live in an area based on where I live myself, you might even recognise it from the descriptions. I don’t use the real names of the towns and villages but I do throw in genuine names of local landmarks.

When I first started to write the series, I wanted the gritty crime bit and have them always come out on top but I also wanted to make the duo relatable with all the frailties and faults as the rest of us.

If you are reading the books for the first time, I hope you enjoy them.

Happy reading – Helen x

Big congratulations to Ellie Henderson for taking home 1st place for romance in the 2025 Feathered Quill Book Awards with her novel A Summer House on Arran!

Dive into this award-winning story here: https://geni.us/house-on-arran-fbt

Read more about the winners here: https://featheredquill.com/feathered-quill-book-awards-2025-winners/

Huge congratulations to Sarah Gate for winning 2nd place in the Romance category at the 2025 Feathered Quill Book Awards with her novel Before You Say Goodbye!

Don't miss this award-winning romance: https://geni.us/before-say-goodbye-fb

See the full list of winners: https://featheredquill.com/feathered-quill-book-awards-2025-winners/

No Exit by Taylor Adams made it on the New York Times list of 10 Winter Reads for Cold Night. At Joffe, we agree! Grab a blanket and a hot cocoa and curl up with this gripping thriller full of heart-stopping twists!

‘An absolute dream come true’: Rupa Mahadevan wins Britain’s biggest crime prize 2024

Joffe Books is delighted to announce the winner of the Joffe Books Prize 2024: Rupa Mahadevan, for her addictive and atmospheric psychological thriller, The Goddess of Death. She receives a two-book publishing deal with Joffe Books, a £1,000 cash prize and a £25,000 audiobook deal from Audible for the first book. This is Britain’s biggest crime prize.

The Joffe Books Prize for Crime Writers of Colour was established in 2021 to actively seek out writers from communities that are underrepresented in crime fiction and support them in building sustainable careers, while simultaneously discovering brilliant new talent to join our bestselling list.

This year, submissions included gritty police procedurals, classic cosy crime whodunnits and ambitious sci-fi thrillers.

The judges, including A.A. Chaudhuri, bestselling author of She’s Mine, literary agent Gyamfia Osei from Andrew Nurnberg Associates, Emma Grundy Haigh, former editorial director at Joffe Books and Jasmine Callaghan, commissioning editor, considered each manuscript in terms of both the strength of the writing and marketability. The judges unanimously awarded the Joffe Books Prize 2024 to Rupa Mahadevan.

From the judges: “This is a tense, fast-paced psychological thriller, with overlapping layers of intrigue and flawed narrators — all of whom have secrets. The eerie setting is fantastic and really adds to the undercurrent of unease and build-up of suspense. A truly gripping thriller with a fresh edge that sets it apart.”

Rupa Mahadevan grew up on the southern coast of India and has called Scotland home for over 15 years. She currently lives in Edinburgh with her husband and two children. When she is not grappling with Excel in her day job, she loves to read and dream up stories of her own. Her passion for becoming a published author is one step closer thanks to Joffe's Books and their commitment to promoting underrepresented authors.

Rupa says: “Winning the Joffe Books Prize is an absolute dream come true. As a writer, especially a writer of colour, it’s so easy to let insecurities take over. This win has given the writer in me the biggest validation, and I couldn’t be more grateful. I’m deeply honoured and thrilled to be working with Joffe Books, whose dedication to promoting underrepresented voices has made this incredible milestone possible.”

Jasmine Callaghan says: “It has been such an honour to have had the opportunity to read the fantastic submissions from so many amazingly talented writers. From the get-go, Rupa’s gripping psychological thriller stood out for its strong hook, tension-filled narrative and unreliable, well-nuanced cast of characters, and the judges’ decision was unanimous. Congratulations, Rupa!”

The synopsis reads: “A reunion of friends during the Hindu Dolls festival on the stormy island of Oban, Scotland, takes a deadly turn when a stabbed doll is found under a goddess statue. Leela (An outsider who has recently married a member of the group) is sure it foretells death.”

Joffe Books is elated to say that Joy Ellis reached number one in the Amazon Best Seller Chart, The Bookstat E-Book Top 10, and the Publisher E-Book Top 10 with her new novel Echoes on the Fens

We are thrilled to announce the shortlist for the Joffe Books Prize for Crime Writers of Colour 2024!

 The fourth Joffe Books Prize received a flood of amazing entries, from edge-of-your-seat psychological thrillers to gritty police procedurals and classic cosy crime whodunnits.

Out of the longlist of eight, five really stood out to the judges, forming our official shortlist:

Emma Salisbury, One Good Reason

R. Jai Singh, The Vineyard

Ivy Ngeow, In Safe Hands

Rupa Mahadevan, The Goddess of Death

Shabnam Grewal, Who Killed Uncle Raj?

The winner will be announced by 30 November 2024, so watch this space!

We are absolutely over the moon- Joy Ellis has hit #1 on the Amazon Kindle Bestseller Chart! Huge thanks to our incredible readers for supporting Joy and following Detective Nikki Galena through 15 thrilling books! Here’s to many more mysteries to come! Congratulations Joy!

Get Echoes on the Fens here for just £2.99/$4.99!

We're delighted to announce the relaunch of the gripping Detective Sophie Allen crime mystery series by bestselling author Michael Hambling! We are publishing anniversary editions of this unputdownable crime series, with beautiful new print and eBook covers by our lead designer Nick Castle.

A message from Michael Hambling:

I’m really pleased that Joffe Books have decided to dust off the Sophie Allen series of crime mysteries and give them a new look. Sophie herself is thrilled to bits with the idea and is planning a night out in her local pub with her team members to toast the news. I wish I could be there with her! As I’ve sometimes said in author talks, I don’t write whodunnits. I write contemporary crime mysteries, often with identifiable themes that lift the lid on the tragedies created by a violent crime. I also like quirky and sometimes offbeat characters. Male receptionists and women civil engineers; feisty youngsters; older mischief-makers; background characters with colourful personalities. They all help to bring my books alive. I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading them.

Best wishes,
Michael

Find out more here!

Veronica Heley celebrates an astonishing 50 years of being published! On Wednesday evening, family, friends, editors and agents gathered at the Pitshanger Bookshop in Ealing to celebrate Veronica's extraordinary writing career.  Following publication of her first crime novel, SUE FOR MERCY in 1974 (available from Lume Books at £1.99), she has written more than eighty finely crafted mysteries (most of them featuring feisty female sleuths Ellie Quicke and Bea Abbot).  At the age of 91, Veronica is still going strong. Her most recent Abbot Agency mystery, FALSE WITNESS, was published in July.  At Joffe Books, we are delighted to be introducing her wonderfully twisty mysteries to a brand-new digital readership.  We published MURDER FOR NOTHING, her 18th Abbot Agency novel, yesterday.

We will really miss Jill! We’re very grateful for all she has contributed over the last nine years. She has been a vital part of the team, always with our authors’ best interests at the heart of everything. From keeping track of their sales rankings to her epic parties with handmade gifts, she has been a wonderful part of Team Joffe.

Jasper Joffe, CEO

We have had such great times at Jill’s amazing launch parties . . . From Guide Star to the present day, we’ve had so many laughs, and we were all certain that they were our lucky talisman for getting up those charts! Big thank-you, Jill, for all your incredible hard work with the blog tours and the parties, and for making such fantastic and creative competition prizes! We are going to miss you!

FYI, I have 86 handmade mini books (keyrings and fridge magnets).

Joy Ellis, author

Jill has done umpteen launch parties for me and other Joffe authors. Each one has been brilliant and lots of fun, with the games, prizes and banter. Whatever is planned for future launches, Jill is one hard act to follow.

On a more personal note, we became great friends. Jill, Joy and I regularly chat online, helping each other through life’s little trials and celebrating the good — something that won’t stop now that Jill has retired. She knows I love her, will miss her and that I wish her the very best for the future. Xx

Helen H. Durrant, author

Working with Joffe Books by Jill Burkinshaw

My relationship with Joffe Books began with me sending an email asking if they were looking for anyone to work remotely in any area. I had been reading, reviewing and blogging for some time. Books are my passion, and Joffe Books was and still is my favourite publisher. I was absolutely thrilled when I received a reply saying they were looking for someone to organise blog tours. I will always be so very grateful to Jasper and Rudi for taking a chance on me. It was a steep learning curve for me and I very nearly gave up at the first book. However, the support and encouragement I received from everyone at Joffe Books, including the authors, persuaded me to keep going. It soon came together, and we all worked together very well with one aim in mind: to do everything we could to get amazing books written and published to as many readers as possible. My contribution grew as I took on other tasks.

Joffe Books was relatively new at the time I joined them. It was a small but friendly and very supportive team, and we all became friends. As new authors joined, they were welcomed into the team and supported by us all. It was obvious at the start that Joffe Books was destined for great things and it has been an absolute pleasure to have been a part — albeit a very small one — of the phenomenal growth to become what it is today: an award-winning independent publisher. Awards that are very well deserved. 

I have loved every minute of my time working with Joffe Books and I am really sad to be leaving, but as old age creeps up so does the need to slow down. It isn’t really goodbye because I will still be reading, reviewing and blogging the brilliant books they publish. I seem to have come full circle back to where I started.

I would like to say a massive THANK-YOU to everyone at Joffe: Rudi and Jasper for having faith in me, the authors, many of whom are now lifelong friends, and the team in the office, which seems to grow by the day, but all are friendly and supportive. Nine years living and working my dream — it has been the very best time and I can’t thank you all enough.

Who am I?

My name is Siân Heap and I joined Joffe Books last month as Senior Commissioning Editor. I’m now on the hunt for the best authors in psychological fiction so we can team up and create some deeply disturbing magic together. I have a wealth of experience working with crime thriller authors, but now I’m looking to expand my horizons and find some exceptional psychological thriller authors. If you think you’re the next Freida McFadden, or that you have a psychological thriller to rival The Perfect Marriage, then I want to hear from you!

What am I looking for?

I’m looking for gripping commercial fiction that readers can’t put down — the kind of thriller that keeps you up at night turning the pages. The book that you have to tell all your friends to read when you’re done because you need to talk to someone about THAT ending.

My current focus is finding more brilliant authors writing domestic suspense. I’m particularly keen to see aspirational settings featuring outsiders looking in, family relationships that are full of dark secrets, and plots with more twists than a slinky. I want to see everyday settings turned upside down and situations that make a reader wonder what they would do in that position.

Most of all, I want to hear from authors with a fresh and distinctive voice who can craft compelling, twisty plots, and who readers will want to come back to again and again.

Who can submit?

Anyone! Authors who have previously published books with another publisher, self-published authors who are keen to elevate their career, or first-time authors looking for the best home for their new novel, all are welcome to submit manuscripts for consideration.

We accept submissions from authors across the world, but we only publish books in the English language.

How do I submit?

If you’re brimming with ideas and think you can write the next psychological thriller that people won’t be able to stop talking about, please email submissions@joffebooks.com with:

1. Your full-length book (minimum 60,000 word count) attached as a PDF or Word document (Word document preferred).

2. A three-paragraph synopsis in the body of the email, including what genre you see your book belonging in.

3. 100 words about yourself in the body of the email.

4. The following must be included in the subject line of the email: your name and book genre and the word submission. For example: John Smith psychological thriller submission. If these are not included, it won’t reach the right person.

5. Please let us know where you heard about Joffe Books.

Please note: we receive a huge number of submissions. We read every one and would love to be able to respond to each, but we simply don’t have the resources to do so. If you don’t hear from us within three months, please assume that your submission is unsuccessful. Do not be disheartened if you don’t hear from us. What is not right for us may be exactly what another publisher is seeking. We encourage you to look for other opportunities to publish elsewhere.

Joffe Books is very proud to publish two of the most-read authors of the last decade as Amazon Books celebrates ten years of Kindle Unlimited. Two of the most popular authors in the UK, crime writer Joy Ellis has had over 1.2 billion pages read of her books in that time and Faith Martin over 1 billion pages read.

Joy Ellis was out of print when Jasper succeeded in tracking her down in 2016 via a story in a local Lincolnshire newspaper and persuaded her to sign up with his eponymous publishing company.

Since then, she has sold more than 3 million books, and her Jackman & Evans series is currently in development for TV with Richard Armitage’s White Boar Films and Sprout Pictures. Richard Armitage says: “I believe Joy Ellis is the closest thing we have to a contemporary Agatha Christie.”

Faith Martin, having written for nearly 30 years, became an overnight success with Joffe Books in 2019. She has written more than 60 novels under many pseudonyms and in several genres, including cosy mysteries and romance, but she has at last reached well-deserved mass market success and bestseller status.

Jasper Joffe, CEO says: “I couldn’t be happier to see two of our wonderful writers reaching so many readers. We built Joffe Books with Joy and Faith: utter joy in publishing our authors’ books and total faith in their talent!”

Joy Ellis says: “Totally amazed at the news and a huge thank-you to my wonderful readers and my equally wonderful publisher for making it happen. Overwhelmed.”

Faith Martin says: “I’m totally stunned. This news came out of the blue and was certainly something I never expected. My first reaction is to say a massive thank-you to all my readers, since, without them, there wouldn’t have been this news at all.”

Kate Nash, Faith Martin’s literary agent says: “Faith Martin’s novels are incredibly popular among a wide readership and it’s a real testament to her talent to see her up there among the very most popular authors in the UK.”

“Amazon Books is celebrating ten years of Kindle Unlimited — a digital reading subscription service allowing customers to read as much as they want on any device with the Kindle app, choosing from millions of eBooks, thousands of audiobooks and hundreds of magazines.

“First introduced in 2014, Kindle Unlimited was designed to give customers the freedom to explore genres, discover authors, and dive into a world of audiobooks and magazine subscriptions. Since 2014, Kindle Unlimited members have read more than 3 billion books globally.” Amazon press release

The top five most read authors on Kindle Unlimited in the UK over the last ten years:

1) J.K. Rowling

2) LJ Ross

3) Joy Ellis (Joffe Books)

4) Faith Martin (Joffe Books)

5) Michael Anderle

We’re delighted to relaunch the gripping Monica Noble mystery series by multi-million-selling author Faith Martin!

In our tenth year of publishing — and five years since we released the first book in the Monica Noble series — we’re celebrating one of Britain’s best-loved mystery writers. Faith’s books have attracted millions of readers worldwide and continue to do so.

We are now publishing anniversary editions of this gripping murder mystery series, with beautiful new print and eBook covers by our lead designer Nick Castle. 

Find out more here!

We are utterly thrilled to announce Joffe Books’ second year of success at the annual Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA) Conference over the weekend.

A big congratulations to Claire McCauley for winning the Joan Hessayon Award for New Writers with her gorgeous rom-com, The Wedding Hitch!

We are delighted to announce that Siân Heap will be joining the team as a senior commissioning editor, having moved from her role at Canelo.

Heap is the third editor to join Joffe Books in July, along with Kate Ballard, former senior editor at Atlantic Books, and Lauren Dooley, former editor at Smashbear Publishing and Ubiquity Press. 

Jasper Joffe, c.e.o., said: “We’re very excited that Siân is joining us. She brings a great depth of experience, and when I met her I was incredibly impressed by her passion for publishing books in the crime and thriller genre, as well as her understanding of how digital can help create brand-name authors. She joins Joffe as we continue our exceptional growth, driven by our amazing team.” 

Siân Heap said: “I have had a wonderful five years at Canelo – I have learned so much from my colleagues there about clever and creative commercial publishing. I will miss them enormously, but I am so excited to be joining the team at Joffe. I have long admired their passion, focus and expertise in digital publishing. I can’t wait to meet the rest of the team and discover some incredible authors for the list!” 

Read more here

We are tremendously proud of our very own Head of Marketing, Hanna Myers for being chosen as one of The Booksellers Rising Stars of 2024. Congratulations Hanna!

The Bookseller says:

When Hanna Myers was growing up in rural Finland her dream of working in publishing seemed remote, so she opted for practicality, qualifying as a nurse. She loved nursing but the publishing dream would not die. “It was a calling, really,” she says. So she upped sticks to London, studying English language and literature at the University of Westminster, securing a publishing assistant role at digital-first indie Joffe Books upon graduation. She ascended quickly, being named head of marketing after just three and a half years.

Myers says she is energised by the creativity and constantly shifting landscape of digital marketing. Last year she and her team produced 180 video trailers, bagged 120 million Amazon ad impressions and notched over one million views across TikTok and Instagram Reels.

The big project on the horizon is Joy Ellis’ Echoes on the Fens, which Myers says will be Joffe’s biggest ever pre-order campaign. She “absolutely loves” where she is, but “maybe 10 years from now, I would love to be in a role where I’m in the process from the start to the finish”. 

See the full Rising Stars 2024 list here

⭐⭐⭐⭐ “A gripping mystery that will keep you hooked.” The Sun

We are delighted to share that Rebecca Collomosse’s new psychological thriller, He’s Gone, has been featured in today’s edition of The Sun.

HE’S GONE by Rebecca Collomosse is OUT NOW!

We are thrilled to announce that Joffe author Claire McCauley is a 2024 contender for the prestigious RNA Joan Hessayon Award for New Writers.

Claire’s nominated novel, The Wedding Hitch, was published in April and her upcoming novel, Once in a Lifetime, comes out later this month!

The winner will be announced at the RNA Gala on Saturday 10 August 2024.