Editorial Director, Chatto & Windus

Are you already an Editorial Director, or an ambitious Senior Commissioning Editor ready to take the next step? This is a rare chance to take up a key role at Chatto & Windus, one of Vintage’s prestigious literary imprints.   

About Chatto & Windus 

Chatto & Windus publishes fiction, non-fiction and poetry across a wide range of subjects and styles, from memoir, campaigning books and science to Booker Prize-winning literary fiction, crossover bestsellers and genre-defying poetry. We seek to balance the highest quality writing with commercial potential in everything we do. Recent titles include Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Tom Crewe’s The New Life, Laura Cumming’s Thunderclap, Diana Evans’s A House for Alice, Margaret Atwood’s Old Babes in the Wood, Lauren Elkin’s Art Monsters and Hannah Ritchie’s Not the End of the World. We are also the proud publishers of Toni Morrison, Nigella Lawson, Anne Tyler, Richard Flanagan, Amanda Gorman, Damon Galgut, Emma Cline, Warsan Shire, Caroline Criado Perez, Edmund de Waal, NoViolet Bulawayo, Kerry Hudson, Kayo Chingonyi and Rose Tremain.     

The Opportunity 

The successful candidate will support the Publishing Director and Deputy Publishing Director in managing and developing our publishing, strategy and workflow to launch bestsellers and ensure quality of publishing. You will commission and publish a portion of the list directly, while having insight into the entire publishing programme, acting as an ambassador for the list and contributing to strategy for titles outside your own commissioning. You will help identify and build a case for new projects, negotiate contracts, position and launch books, galvanise colleagues across departments, solicit quotes, write great copy, brief and oversee jacket design, while being a primary point of contact for authors and agents. 

Candidate Profile 

The following qualities are preferred: 

• A proven track record in editing, acquiring, proactively commissioning new ideas and profitably publishing literary non-fiction and fiction. If your experience is in non-fiction only, we would also welcome hearing from you.  

• Creativity, energy, sound commercial judgement and editorial flair combined with the ability to follow through and keep on schedule and budget.  

• Ability to build strong relationships with authors, agents and across the wider industry. 

• A keen sense of Chatto & Windus’s and Vintage’s priorities and values, and what makes for an outstanding work of non-fiction, narrative non-fiction and fiction.  

• Comfortable acting as an internal and external ambassador for Chatto & Windus, and as a leader within the imprint and as part of the wider Vintage editorial team.  

• A strong team player with interpersonal sensitivity and emotional intelligence. 

• Professional curiosity, and an appetite for innovation and problem-solving. 

• A good understanding of the marketplace: retailers, media, audiences and competitors.  

• Confident partner for Marketing, Publicity, and other internal teams to develop each book’s strategy, positioning, copy and design. 

• Proven author care and negotiation experience.  

Please apply with your CV and cover letter outlining why you are the right candidate for the role (addressed to Becky) by midnight on Monday 1st April. First interviews will be scheduled soon after the closing date.  

What you can expect from us

Salary: £47,000 - £52,000 depending on how your skills and experience align to the role, plus bonus and benefits.   

Competitive benefits package:  

Our people are the heart of our business, and we work hard to support a culture of responsibility and recognition.  

Our benefits include: 

Financial – income protection, life assurance, childcare allowance 

Wellbeing - healthcare cash plan, critical illness cover, health checks 

Lifestyle – enhanced parental leave, tech scheme,  

For our full benefits list please visit: https://www.penguinrandomhousecareers.co.uk/what-we-offer/ 

Hybrid working:  

We’re experimenting with a hybrid way of working that suits the needs of each team. While our offices across the UK are places to connect, collaborate and celebrate with colleagues, we recognise that flexibility around where you work is just as important. At Vintage, we consider what environment enables the best work for individuals, teams and the company. Vintage colleagues work from our Embassy Gardens office on Tuesdays and Thursdays and, once team and divisional considerations have been taken into account, have the flexibility to choose where to work on other days of the week.  

The recruitment process:  

You can read about our recruitment process at https://www.penguinrandomhousecareers.co.uk/how-we-hire/ 

As a Disability Confident Committed organisation, we offer interviews to candidates with a disability who meet the essential criteria for the role, and opt-in on their application form. There may be times when the volume of applications means we cannot take all eligible candidates to interview. 

We encourage you to tell us about any reasonable adjustments you may need by emailing PRHCareersUK@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk. Remember, you only need to share what you are comfortable to for us to support your request. 

Please note, we are not able to accept agency CVs for this role. Any CVs sent speculatively will not be eligible for a fee.