Commissioning editor

Closing date: 15th December 2024

Salary: £32,000+ dependent on experience and location (+bonus +benefits)

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

We have an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated commissioning editor to join the Headline fiction imprint.

Headline has spent over three decades creating bestsellers and our passion for the commercial means we are home to some of the UK’s biggest-selling authors and continue to invest in new talent with stellar sales potential.

Headline publishes some of the biggest and best-loved names in fiction, including Martina Cole, Maggie O’Farrell, Maggie Stiefvater, Karen Rose, Jill Mansell, Victoria Hislop, Simon Scarrow, Dorothy Koomson, Steve Cavanagh, Jodi Taylor and Deborah Harkness, and is proud to publish the books that immerse, entertain, transport and grip their readers; the books that inspire conversation. Over the last couple of years we have launched an array of exciting new voices that include Bolu Babalola, Ashley Elston, Amber V. Nicole, Amanda Geard and Alex Hay.

Our authors appear on the most prestigious prize longlists and shortlists, and, as one of the most dynamic publishers going, we were shortlisted for Publisher of the Year at the 2023 British Book Awards.

What you'll be doing

• Reporting to the Publisher, the successful candidate will commission and publish new titles in the commercial women’s fiction genre, across the Headline, Headline Review and Accent imprints, with a focus on creating digital bestsellers in both the UK and US, spotting the opportunities which will have international reach and also finding new ways to maximise ongoing authors’ rich backlist. 
• You will take ownership of your titles, seeing them through from acquisition to publication and beyond, while delivering best-in-class author care. 
• You will manage your titles’ desk editing and metadata. 
• You will have the opportunity to work alongside the Publisher and Publishing Director in a support editorial capacity on a handful of major launch titles per year. 
• You will contribute to shared resources for the imprint as needed.

Who we're looking for

If you are a creative and commercially savvy editor then this is the job for you. You will be a key member of the Headline Fiction team, a place where innovation and thinking outside the box to deliver sales success is championed.  

• Some commissioning experience is desirable, but most important is your ability to spot commercial storytelling talent and understand emerging trends, as well as show clear and confident vision, strategic thinking and an entrepreneurial mindset. 
• The successful candidate will confidently build internal and external relationships and have a desire to represent the imprint at industry events, where appropriate. 
• We are looking for someone who can demonstrate where an idea of theirs has directly led to a successful publication, whether that’s the book idea itself (it could be an IP project or a manuscript submitted by an agent), a lightbulb moment which has reinvented a title/an author's publishing successfully, or a marketing idea that helped a book’s sales trajectory.

What we offer

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

• 28 annual leave days per year, increases to 29 days after 2 years' service and goes up to 30 days after 5 years' (+ bank holidays)
• Private medical 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 Staff-led employee networks that are voluntary, including Gender Balance, Thrive, Pride, All Together, Wellbeing and religious networks
• Season ticket loans
• And much more!

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.

Please state in your application that you found this role through Creative Access.

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