Assistant Editor - Children's Fiction

Overview of the role

A key member of the editorial team, this role provides editorial support to the Fiction publishing team and is responsible for project managing titles across all areas of the list, as well as a particular focus on supporting the Publishing Director with their books. This is not a commissioning role, but the position offers a rare opportunity for an accurate, organised, efficient and creative team-player to step into a challenging Assistant Editor’s role in a power-house team, learning key skills for development as an editor.

Key tasks and accountabilities

• Supporting the commissioning team across the list, and the Publishing Director on their books, project managing titles from manuscript through to publication under the editors’ guidance, ensuring given titles are delivered on time, to budget and to specification

• Desk editorial responsibilities – proofreading, some copyediting, copywriting – for a range of fiction titles, including digital formats

• Writing design briefs with guidance from acquiring editor – covers to be briefed on time and within context of the market on given titles

• Reading and reporting on submissions and competitor titles for the whole team, providing timely, insightful feedback to the commissioning team taking into consideration market context and HarperCollins’ forward publishing strategy. Note that reading time is unlikely to be available during office hours

• Market research as required by the senior editorial team including Bookscan, retailer visits, and competitor research in order to provide supporting materials for strategic planning and acquisitions

• Managing relevant editorial listings (AIS, BIC, Acquisitions forms, P&Ls) alongside the departmental Metadata Champion, to ensure accurate and up-to-date title/list information is available internally and externally. Ensuring that editorial Plan G listings, including AIS, are complete, accurate and in line with best practises for online visibility and SEO

• Liaising with authors, artists and agents across the list, maintaining standards of excellent author care and strong publisher-agent relations when appropriate alongside the editors

• Responsibility for upkeep of correction files, attending the reprint meetings, marking up and checking reprints in progress, including corrections, updating end matter, etc. with support from the editorial management team and the Editorial Assistant. Ensuring all books that reprint do so with all relevant corrections made and checked, all in good time for the reprint schedule

• Coordinating editorial content for bookfair catalogues, and proofreading and imputing corrections, ensuring efficient and timely coordination of editorial content from early stages to endpoint

Experience required

• Strong and current editorial experience in children’s books

Skills required

• Exceptional proofreading skills

• Solid understanding of copy-editing process

• Organised, efficient, self motivated

• Strong author care and interpersonal skills

• Good design eye

• Excellent communication skills across all levels in order to present solutions to senior editorial team, liaise effectively and decisively with design and production in-house and with authors and agents externally

• Awareness/understanding of budgets

• Team player

• Solutions-focused

Benefits

• Hybrid working model (2+ days in the office)

• 26 days holiday plus bank holidays (option to buy and sell holiday days)

• Enhanced pay for maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave

• Private healthcare cover and life assurance

• Free access to HeadSpace, employee assistance programme (24 hour helpline), mental health first aiders, and a wellbeing portal

• Season ticket loans (from day 1 for entry level) and cycle to work scheme

• Employee networks: HC All In (open forum), Elevate (for ethnic minority colleagues), HarperParents, Menopause at Work and Pride at HC

• Unlimited training on our Learning and Development portal, management courses (up to MA level) and mentoring programmes

• Virtual GP and eyecare vouchers

• Gym membership discount

• Onsite physiotherapy (London only)

• Charitable donation matching and volunteering day

• We're a certified Carbon Neutral company

• Free e-books and audiobooks, newspaper subscriptions and discounts on books

• Subsidised canteen and retail discounts

• Onsite prayer room

If you wish to discuss anything regarding this position and/or your application to this role, please reach out directly to our Talent Acquisition Manager at [email removed - click apply for more details] with subject heading ‘Vacancy Query’ plus the job title and we will aim to get back to you within 5 working days.