We are looking for an engaged, reliable and efficient Editorial Assistant to join the Fiction team at Penguin Michael Joseph.
About Penguin Michael Joseph and the Fiction Team
Penguin Michael Joseph are the publishers of a focused list of the UK’s best-loved commercial fiction and non-fiction writers, from Marian Keyes to Raynor Winn, Stephen Fry to Liane Moriarty.
In fiction, we are home to some of the UK’s biggest authors, as well as some of the most exciting new voices and emerging brands of the future. Ranging across a broad spectrum of genres – from women’s and reading group fiction to crime and thriller, romance and fantasy – our recent bestsellers include Jojo Moyes’ Someone Else’s Shoes, Costanza Casati’s Clytemnestra, Kate Dramis’ The Curse of Saints, Tim Weaver’s The Last Goodbye, and Claire Douglas’ The Woman Who Lied.
The opportunity
This is a great opportunity to learn about editorial processes and publishing books. You will be responsible for providing mainly administrative support to the Penguin Michael Joseph fiction team and assisting with the smooth running of the department.
You’ll be working across a range of different titles at different stages in the publishing process, providing excellent author care, and will need to keep projects to deadlines and liaise with teams across different departments.
Responsibilities will include:
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Managing diaries and schedules, arranging meetings, and taking minutes
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Populating and updating our internal database with information about our books and authors (training provided)
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Logging and tracking expenses, processing invoices, managing mailings, and raising contracts
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Prompting editors for materials, and reading and reporting on submissions
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Organising submissions for literary prizes, and sending out finished copies to authors and agents
What you’ll bring
You’ll need to be adept at multi-tasking and managing a variety of tasks and priorities to deadline. You’ll have excellent communication skills and an ability to work well under pressure and organise yourself, and others, effectively.
We’re looking for someone who is excited to work with brilliant commercial fiction, and perhaps you’ll also be interested in how we publish books, from how we acquire books to how we progress them through to publication and beyond.
If you’re detail-focused, highly organised, quick and eager to learn and respond to a variety of demands, and a team player with a keen eye as to how to improve processes and keep everything and everyone around you running efficiently, this is the role for you.
How to apply
Please apply with your CV and Cover Letter by 23:59 on Tuesday 29th August. As part of your cover letter, please answer the following question in no more than 300 words: What are the top three things you take into consideration when prioritising your workload?
Our hybrid working approach
PRH is currently experimenting with hybrid working and involving colleagues across the business to shape our future ways of working. The needs of our teams and individuals are different, so we’re not taking a one-size-fits-all approach. We’re expecting the Assistant to come into the Nine Elms office at least 2 days a week to attend in-person meetings. We are open to discussing this through the recruitment process.
What you can expect from us:
Salary: You‘ll start on £26,500. Expect a £1,000 increase on your first anniversary in this role to reflect your growing contribution.
Our employees are the heart of our business. We have a range of benefits to reflect our commitment to our employees, some of which are:
- 27 days paid holiday entitlement in year one (plus bank holidays), increasing a day each year up to 30 days
- Medical cover
- Life assurance
- Cycle to Work scheme
- Discounted gym membership
- Generous pension scheme
- Summer working hours (role dependent)
- Volunteering policy and charity matching
- Employee Assistance programme
- Mentoring programme
- Extended gender neutral parental leave
- Access to books and eBooks across Penguin Random House UK
- Each site has trained mental health first aiders
- We plant a tree for every new employee to our business
Our creativity is inspired by different perspectives, so we want our culture to be one of belonging, where everyone feels welcome and where differences are celebrated.
As a Disability Confident Committed organisation, we're part of the offer an interview scheme. This is where disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role can opt in to get to the next recruitment stage. There may be some situations where volume of applicants means we can't take all eligible candidates to interview.
We want to make sure disabled applicants can be their best at each step of the recruitment journey. If you need adjustments during the application process, we encourage you to get in touch with us at http://PRHCareersUK@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk. Remember, you only need to share what you are comfortable to for us to support your adjustment request. Find out more about our approach here: http://www.penguinrandomhousecareers.co.uk/applying-for-roles-with-a-disability
We partner with The Book Trade Charity, who provide financial assistance for people looking to get into the publishing industry; you can find more information and talk directly here: https://btbs.org/grants
Please note, we are not able to accept agency CVs for this role. Any CVs sent speculatively will not be eligible for a fee.
Company: Penguin Books Limited
Country: United Kingdom
State/Region: London
City: London
Postal Code: SW11
Job ID: 262714