Commissioning Editor (12 month FTC)

Hachette UK Limited; Sheffield; Hybrid; GBP 35,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent children's publishing group is seeking a Commissioning Editor to join the Wren & Rook non-fiction team. This role entails contributing ideas, commissioning titles, and collaborating closely with authors to ensure project success. Ideal candidates will possess strong editorial skills and a commercial mindset, along with experience in the children's publishing sector. The position offers a hybrid working environment and generous employee benefits, including medical insurance, development programs, and annual leave enhancements.

Benefits

28 annual leave days

Private medical insurance

Dental insurance

Generous pension schemes

Cycle to Work scheme

Wide-ranging training library

Development programmes

Qualifications

• Considerable experience as an editor is required.
• Strong eye for design and commercial awareness.
• Good understanding of author care.

Responsibilities

• Contribute new ideas to grow and develop the list.
• Commission new titles across non-fiction for ages 7+.
• Work closely with authors and support senior editors.

Skills

Editorial skills

Commercial awareness

Design understanding

Relationship building

Tools

Biblio

InDesign

Job description

Hachette Children's Group is one of the UK's largest children's publishers, our mission is to make it easy for children and young people everywhere to access books and see themselves reflected. We aim to maximise our readers' life chances by inspiring a lifelong love of reading, publishing books for every stage of their journey to adulthood from Enid Blyton to Alice Oseman's Heartstopper.

Hachette Children’s Group is a division of Hachette, one of the largest publishing groups in the UK, with 10 publishing divisions and over 60 imprints. Everyone here is proud to be in the business of opening doors and minds.

What you'll be doing

A fantastic opportunity has arisen for an ambitious, ideas-driven Commissioning Editor to join the Wren & Rook 7+ non-fiction team for a one year fixed-term contract.

Reporting to the Editorial Director, you will be responsible for contributing new ideas to grow and develop the list, and will commission a number of new titles across colour and text-led non-fiction for ages 7+. You will also work closely with existing authors on the Wren & Rook list, supporting senior editors in ensuring that all projects are delivered on and to budget.

This is an exciting opportunity to join a small, ambitious team on a market-leading children’s non-fiction list, featuring some of the best books, authors and illustrators in the children’s market.

Who we are looking for

We are looking for a candidate with excellent editorial skills, a strong eye for design and solid commercial awareness. You should have a good understanding of the importance of author care, and the ability to forge positive working relationships with agents. We are looking for a versatile editor who can nurture our current authors, deliver an exceptional editorial service, keep track of trends, develop new ideas and commission commercial colour and text-led non-fiction titles.

This is a truly collaborative role, and the successful candidate will be involved in every aspect of the editorial process, working closely with staff in all other departments to help prepare and champion titles across the Wren & Rook list. The Commissioning Editor will support senior staff with big high-profile projects, including being the lead editor for a number of authors, while commissioning and building their own roster of talent.

You will need to be an energetic self-starter, confident in leading complex projects, and solutions-driven when handling tricky conversations.

Considerable experience as an editor is required, good working knowledge of Biblio and InDesign is preferable, and a keen understanding of the children’s and adult non-fiction market is essential.

What we offer

Our staff are our greatest asset, and our benefits reflect this:

• 28 annual leave days per year, increasing to 29 days after 2 years’ service and to 30 days after 5 years’ (+ bank holidays)
• Private medical insurance
• Dental 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 voluntary staff-led employee networks, including AgeWise, Gender Balance, Thrive, Pride, All Together, Wellbeing and religious networks
• Season ticket loans
• And much more!

This role can be based at our London, Edinburgh or Sheffield office, with a blend of in-office (3 days) and homeworking (2 days) per week

Our commitment

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