Sharmaine Lovegrove has spent 20 years getting to the point she’s at today - publisher of her own imprint, Dialogue Books, at Little, Brown, where her remit is to acquire books by people under-represented in publishing, and books that “spark a conversation”.

But if she’d followed a traditional path in publishing, she’s sure she wouldn’t be where she is now. “I do think I would have struggled coming up had I worked in-house,” Lovegrove says.

“I think it would be helpful for the industry to not see the roles on the way to becoming a publisher as being static. I think there are boundaries in...