Edits and manages commercial fiction titles from acquisition through publication across print and digital formats. Responsibilities include structural, line, and desk editing; author and agent relationship management; acquisitions and deal negotiation; market and trend analysis; cover briefing; metadata and launch materials; and coordination with production, sales, marketing, digital, rights, and audio teams.
As Editor, you will provide editorial and desk editing support, managing all titles for the publisher, and some for the editorial director, as well as establishing and acquiring your own list. You will have ownership of your own stable of authors, seeing them through from acquisition to publication for both physical and digital editions. The Avon list is broadly divided into halves: our heartland list, and our trend-led list, which includes contemporary romance across subgenres, paranormal and romantasy, horror, and more. You will work on a range of books with a focus on trend-led titles, especially romance and women’s fiction, creating strategies in conjunction with key team members to launch your books to the top of the charts. This is a role with a great amount of potential for growth, and the new Editor will be an important member of our small and dynamic team. It will suit digitally-savvy candidates who have both initiative and energy, and strong experience desk editing.
It is essential that you have a strong awareness of market dynamics, particularly the digital market, with a broad and keen interest in commercial fiction, especially romance and ‘trend-led’ genres. You should be able to prove that you keep abreast of current publishing trends, as well as displaying intuition about future trend developments. You will have been working as an Assistant Editor or Editor already, and will be able to demonstrate experience of creative and editorial input, plus an eye for detail and quality. You will be a confident and articulate communicator, highly organised, be able to multi-task and have a strong and active interest in social media and developments across the trad and self-published areas of the industry. You will be creative and forward-thinking, bringing with you a can-do attitude and a desire to drive your books and authors to the top of the charts. You will have experience of desk editing and the overall publishing process, and a desire for continuous learning as your role expands. This role will suit candidates who are used to working in fast-paced and exciting environments, who can think on their feet, and are happy taking initiative where necessary.
Key Responsibilities
Editorial
- Ownership of and main point of contact for own stable of authors as agreed with the Publisher, working across romance, women’s fiction, and some crime titles, seeing them through from acquisition to publication for both physical and digital editions.
- Work on structural and line edits of own authors.
- Desk editing the publisher’s list of titles, and a number of titles for the editorial director.
- Desk editing own books, working closely with the production team and pub ops team to keep them in line with critical path.
- Understanding and wider reading of UK and international commercial romance and women’s fiction markets, ensuring strong market knowledge and market-focused publishing strategies.
- Briefing jackets and liaising with designers, seeing covers through from start to finish.
- Copywriting and checking sales/marketing material, e.g. catalogues, sales presenters etc.
- Build and foster relationships with agents, with a view to bringing in the best new talent and commissioning new titles for the Avon list.
- Creating vision documents for new acquisitions, and presenting these at acquisition meetings.
- To produce timely launch documents in consultation with the Editorial Director, Key Account Manager and Marketing Manager.
- Ownership of metadata/AIs for individual authors, ensuring this fits with emerging trends in the market, and is completed in line with critical path.
- Liaising with in-house digital teams to ensure understanding of digital promotions, and securing selections for books on the list
General
- Negotiate deals for new acquisitions with agents, with support from the Publisher and Contracts team as necessary.
- Ensure a strong awareness of what physical retailers are looking for.
- Create content for customer presentations and other presentations where necessary.
- Ensure that Sales, International Sales, Audio, Digital Sales and Rights teams have all the advance sales information that they require for own titles.
Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
- Experience of working within the publishing industry (at Assistant Editor level or Editor level or equivalent)
- Experience of desk editing processes
- Be able to demonstrate sound market knowledge of and passion for commercial ‘trend-led’ fiction
- Experience of working directly with authors
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Takes initiative
- A problem solver
- Quick-thinking
- Creative
- Extremely organised
- A keen eye for detail
- Interpersonal and diplomacy skills
- Technically competent, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint
- Passionate, energetic and enthusiastic
- Enjoys a challenge
Additional Information
HarperCollins operates a hybrid working policy where employees are expected to work from our London office three days per week.
If you wish to discuss anything regarding this position, please contact [email protected] with the subject line 'Vacancy Query' followed by the job title. We aim to respond within 5 working days.
If you wish to discuss anything regarding this position, please contact [email protected] with the subject line 'Vacancy Query' followed by the job title. We aim to respond within 5 working days.
About
HarperCollins UK is a division of HarperCollins Publishers, the second largest consumer book publisher in the world, with operations in 15 countries. With over two hundred years of history and more than 120 unique imprints around the world, HarperCollins publishes approximately 10,000 new books every year, in 16 languages, and has a print and digital catalogue of more than 200,000 titles. Its authors include Our bestsellers include Bernard Cornwell, Adele Parks, Max Hastings, Rebecca F. Kuang, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It is the publisher of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series., and legendary titles by legacy authors J.R.R. Tolkien, Agatha Christie and C.S. Lewis. It is home to Paddington and Winnie-the-Pooh, and beloved books by Judith Kerr, Rob Biddulph and Michael Morpurgo, and brands such as Mr Men & Little Miss, Thomas & Friends and Minecraft. The Collins education division is a pioneer in reference publishing and develops market-leading dictionaries, atlases and bibles as well as state-of-the-art online learning platforms which supplement its award-winning books for primary and secondary school students.
HarperCollins UK London, England Office
London, United Kingdom
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