Commissioning editor

Closing date: 2nd January 2025

Salary: £35,000+ dependent on experience and location (+bonus +benefits)

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

We’re looking for someone with entrepreneurial flair, creative passion for their books and authors, and who is ready to take the next step in their career.

Quercus is a young, dynamic, award-winning publisher, known as a hit-maker that regularly finds books that surprise and delight readers. We are international in our outlook – almost 40% of our authors are from 25 countries other than the UK and US – and have six distinctive imprints that publish an exciting and diverse range of authors across literary and commercial fiction and non-fiction. From established bestsellers such as Elly Griffiths, Peter May, Beth O’Leary and the ‘Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ series, to Joel Dicker, Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Bill Bailey, what draws all our publishing together is the magic ‘quirk’ in Quercus: a commitment to independence, flair, warmth and creativity that has always marked out this young company.

Quercus is looking for an energetic commissioning editor to join our busy, friendly and motivated Fiction team and to acquire and publish on our commercial fiction list, with a focus on romance and women’s fiction.

Our list features a range of brilliant authors including Sunday Times bestsellers Elly Griffiths, Beth O’Leary and JP Delaney as well as New York Times bestsellers Tia Williams, Lyla Sage and Navessa Allen. Reporting to the Publishing Director, the successful candidate will commission and publish commercial fiction and the role will also include developing IP-based projects and bringing them to publication. You will have complete ownership of your titles, seeing them through from acquisition to publication and beyond, while delivering superb author care. The Quercus Fiction team is a driven, collaborative and friendly group.

Who we're looking for

We’re looking for someone with commissioning experience, particularly in the romance genre. You’ll be full of creative energy, enjoy working closely with authors and agents, and being part of a close editorial team. A few other qualities will also be important:

• A standout commercial fiction market awareness
• Energised by the idea of building innovative publication campaigns and eager to work with our sales, marketing and PR teams
• Enjoy coming up with ideas for new projects
• Strong pre-existing relationships with literary agents (in the UK and US)

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