Senior Commissioning Editor
What you’ll be doing
You will be responsible for seeking out new talent, building relationships with authors and commissioning and developing commercially focussed books and resources. The role will involve working across a range of formats, including self-help, memoir, practical guides, children’s books, books for teens, graphic non-fiction as well as online resources.
Some of the Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
- Directly approach potential authors with original publishing ideas
- Establish and maintain relationships with authors
- Actively solicit, acquire, evaluate, and develop proposals and book concepts
- Negotiate contracts with authors and agents
- Champion books through the publishing process
- Maintain an effective relationship with editorial, marketing, sales production, and other departments
- Develop and maintain market awareness in order to identify publishing opportunities
- Oversee the preparation of marketing, jacket, and catalogue copy; and review marketing and publicity materials.
- Lead on publishing strategy for our Gender and Sexuality publishing
Who we are looking for
Jessica Kingsley Publishers are looking to hire a talented and ambitious Senior Commissioning Editor for our market-leading Gender Diversity and Sexuality publishing.
You will be passionate about LGBTQIA+ rights and be able to demonstrate that you have your finger on the pulse of trends and understand what our readers want. You will also have strong connections to the LGBTQIA+ community and know who is going to be the next rising star or influencer.
This is the perfect opportunity for someone in publishing looking to take the next step in their editorial career and build their own list and lead on strategy. If you are creative, insightful, a self-starter and passionate about publishing LGBTQIA+ voices, then we would love to hear from you.
Please apply with a CV and cover letter and in your cover letter, tell us about one book or resource you would want to commission for the list and why.
What we offer
Our staff are our greatest asset and our benefits reflect this. In addition to 25 days annual leave days per year + bank holidays, we have an extensive list of benefits that include: a wide-ranging training library, development programmes including mentoring, Cycle to Work vouchers, Private Medical Insurance, eye care vouchers, up to 70% off book purchases, a charity book shelf, 2 community days per year, many employee networks to join, summer hours (finishing at 1pm on Fridays during the summer months!), season ticket loans, rent deposit loans, generous pension schemes and much more!
This role can be based at our London office, or at any of our new regional offices in Edinburgh, Newcastle, or Sheffield with a blend of in-office (3 days) and homeworking (2 days) per week.
Who we are and what we do
JKP is an award-winning, global publisher committed to publishing products that celebrate diversity and encourage social change. In 2017, JKP became part of John Murray Press, a fast-growing division of Hachette UK and in 2022, JKP won the Academic, Educational and Professional Publisher of the Year at The British Book Awards.
Our Gender Diversity and Sexuality list publishes some of the UK’s leading writers and activists from the LGBTQIA+ community, including Owl and Fox Fisher, Juno Roche, Charlie Craggs, Meg-John Barker, Rhyannon Styles, Jamie Windust, Sabah Choudrey and Ben Pechey. Our books have won and been nominated for numerous awards and prizes including the Polari Prize, the Polari First Book Prize, Stonewall Book Awards and the Lambda Literary Book Awards.
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