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Commissioning Editor, Penguin Press

Penguin Press is home to serious and groundbreaking non-fiction in hardback and paperback, plus the extended family of classic fiction, non-fiction and poetry. We have established a reputation for books that bring new ideas to readers and represent the best in editorial and design standards.

We have a fantastic opportunity for a creative, dynamic Commissioning Editor to help us shape the list. In this role, we are specifically looking for authors to publish in the Allen Lane, Penguin and Pelican imprints alongside such writers as Amartya Sen, Lea Ypi, Jared Diamond, Emma Dabiri, Judith Butler and Ha-Joon Chang.

Your main areas of responsibility will involve:

  • Acquiring an agreed number of titles per year for the list
  • Soliciting and evaluating proposals and developing ideas for new books
  • Developing relationships with authors and agents with a view to future acquisitions
  • Building a wide author list which has stability and longevity
  • Pitching proposals in order to get team buy-in
  • Determining viability and profitability of acquisitions
  • Dealing with negotiations around the book within agreed tactics and values
  • Undertaking structural and line edits
  • Managing the internal book process: scheduling, writing cover copy and sales points, liaising with the author as well as with internal teams
  • Actively promoting and selling books in-house
  • Showing regular and notable success and profitability of commissioned titles from year to year
  • Developing a distinctive, personal commissioning style

A self-starter full of ideas and curiosity and keen to try new approaches, you will collaborate well with the team around you to drive projects forward. You will have previous editorial experience and be able to form strong and trusted working relationships and pitch effectively, persuading others to come on board with your ideas.  

This role will be based at our Vauxhall Bridge Road office. We are currently trialling hybrid working.

If you’re up for the challenge, please apply with a CV and covering letter, telling us in no more than 150 words about the best non-fiction book you have read in the last year by the end of the day on Sunday 15th May.

What you can expect from us:

Salary: £31,913 to £35,000 depending on how your skills and experience align to the role, plus bonus and benefits.

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: 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: http://booktradeentrysupport.org/

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

Commissioning Editor, Penguin Press

Full-time, Permanent
Publisher
Administration, Commissioning Editor, Editor, Publishing, Communications, Business Development, Editorial
Reference: 
Commissioning Editor, Penguin Press
Salary description: 
£31,913 to £35,000 depending on how your skills and experience align to the role, plus bonus and benefits.

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You will have previous editorial experience and be able to form strong and trusted working relationships and pitch effectively, persuading others to come on board with your ideas.