Commissioning Editor
- Hachette UK
- Full Time
- London
- £33,000-£42,000
Job Description
Find us brilliant new authors. Publish excellent books. Collaborate with a talented team. And learn all there is to know about creating digital bestsellers.
We're looking for the very best talent to join our editorial team - from both within publishing and beyond.
Bookouture is the UK's fastest growing digital publisher, and part of Hachette UK. We have grown rapidly over the last twelve years to a team of 54 people, we have sold over 80 million commercial fiction and non-fiction books to readers worldwide, and 2024 was a record-breaking year for us. Off the back of this incredible success, we're excited to be growing our editorial team.
If you love commercial fiction, want to get brilliant books in the hands of readers around the world, and are excited about digital publishing and combining data and creativity, we want to hear from you.
We have an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated commissioning editor to join our editorial team. You will be publishing around 18 books a year, across a range of commercial fiction genres. You will be acquiring, editing and publishing with a high level of autonomy and ensuring we are publishing the highest potential authors in the most commercial way, with an eye on the global market, excellent author care, and strong copywriting skills.
- You're a creative person with a passion for stories, able to spot trends and understand what makes a reader tick.
- You use data to inform your work, and love using your analytical brain to understand what's working and what could be done better.
- You're a strong communicator, capable of building good relationships and unafraid of having challenging conversations when needed.
- You have a relentless focus on results, and on getting our books to the broadest possible readership. You're agile and reactive, thriving on change and taking risks.
- You will be invested in diversifying our business, making our books as diverse as the range of readers we aim to reach.
You may have a background in working on commercial fiction in a publishing role, but this is not essential, if you can demonstrate that you have all of the other skills that we're looking for.
At Bookouture, editors have the freedom to acquire autonomously without hurdles to jump through, and we can go direct to designers with a creative vision. We don't have acquisition meetings. We have access to daily sales and pre-order numbers at the click of a button. We can change covers, copy and titles overnight - and see the impact the next day. We build strong and trusting relationships with our authors, collaborating with them to ensure readers love what we publish. Our books are published across the world, and we are as focussed on the US as the UK. We were among the first publishers to harness the power of data, and we believe we remain the best at it. We have all the advantages of being part of a big five publisher with the mindset and entrepreneurial drive of a start-up. If you think this sounds like an exciting place to work, we want to consider your application.
Our staff are our greatest asset, and our benefits reflect this:
- 28 annual leave days per year, increases to 29 days after 2 years' service and goes up to 30 days after 5 years' (+ bank holidays)
- Private medical insurance
- Generous pension schemes
- Rent deposit loans
- 2 community days per year
- Summer hours (finishing at 1pm on Fridays during the summer months)
- Retail discounts through Hachette rewards
- Cycle to Work scheme
- Eye care vouchers
- Wide-ranging training library
- Development programmes (including mentoring)
- Up to 70% off book purchases
- A charity bookshelf
- 12 Staff-led employee networks that are voluntary, including Gender Balance, Thrive, Pride, All Together, Wellbeing and religious networks
- Season ticket loans
- And much more!
The role will be based at our London or Sheffield office, with a blend of in-office (3 days) and homeworking (2 days) per week.
Hachette employs people on the basis of their abilities. We aim to attract and develop talent from a base as broad as the world of readers we want to reach, with a wide and representative range of age, faith, disability, race, gender, sexuality and socio-economic, regional and cultural backgrounds. If you are shortlisted and need us to make any adjustments to help you attend for interview, please let us know.
The Book Trade Charity offers financial support to people looking to enter the book trade but who may struggle to afford the costs of attending interviews and undertaking junior roles. For more information visit www.booktradeentrysupport.org