Editorial assistant, Avon

Closing date for applications: Sunday 8th March 2026 11:55pm

Salary: £29,000

Location: London

Want to work at the heart of commercial fiction publishing? Support the HarperCollins editorial team while helping discover and develop the next big titles.

With a history stretching back over 200 years, HarperCollins is the second largest consumer book publisher in the world. Here at HarperCollins UK, we publish around 1,500 books a year for readers of all ages and interests. Our bestsellers include Bernard Cornwell, Adele Parks, Jonathan Franzen, David Walliams, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Memoirs of British prime ministers. 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.

As Editorial Assistant, you will provide administrative and editorial support across the division. In addition to this, the editorial assistant will be a key voice in the acquisitions process, reading submitted manuscripts alongside the rest of the team and managing the open submissions inbox on behalf of the division. As well as taking ownership of administrative duties, and some desk editing for the team, there will be regular opportunities for the successful candidate to develop their editorial skills, working on edits alongside editors and assisting with creative briefs for books. In time, the editorial assistant will take on their own authors under the supervision of a managing editor.

This role is ideally suited to an organised and detail-focused candidate who has both initiative and energy. They will have a keen interest in commercial fiction and be excited at the prospect of applying creative flair to the editorial process, ensuring that our publishing continues to stand out at the forefront of a competitive market.

Key responsibilities

Editorial

• Assisting with the team’s desk editing, preparing prelims and taking ownership for proof checking, collation and amendments as required, managing editorial bookings for the team.
• Assisting the team with digital production processes, including back ad creation and Ebook quality assurance checks.
• Reading submissions, submitting reader reports, managing the submissions log and updating it on a weekly basis.
• Weekly updates of key minutes.
• Shadowing editors on editorial work as necessary.
• Proofreading jacket copy, catalogue copy, AIs, and divisional documents as necessary.
• Writing copy as required.
• Creating cover briefs and briefing designers, liaising between them and the team over the course of the process.
• Liaising with the production team and editors, helping to ensure critical path is met.

General

• Offer support to the Publisher and Editorial Director as necessary, as well as other members of the editorial team.
• Raising purchase orders as necessary.
• Responsibility for diary management for team meetings, in particular weekly editorial and cover art meetings.
• Responsibility for updating the Avon presentations – such as the biyearly rights presentation – with new jackets and info as necessary.
• Ensuring the Avon bookshelves are updated monthly around the building with new titles.
• Handling book orders and author orders on behalf of the team.
• Collating and updating an author and agent master list, with updated contact details.
• Assisting the team to ensure all authors receive celebratory presents on pub day.

Knowledge, skills and experience

• Significant administrative and organisation aptitude
• An effective multi-tasker, with experience of coping in a pressurised environment
• Passion for commercial fiction across a range of genres
• Effective communicator at all levels
• Excellent attention to detail
• Advanced MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint
• Reliable, with the ability to use own initiative
• Interested in digital publishing
• Proactive and flexible
• A can-do, energetic attitude
• A team player who enjoys working in a collaborative environment

Benefits

• Hybrid working model (3 days in the office)
• 28 days holiday plus bank holidays (option to buy and sell holiday days)
• Enhanced pay for maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave
• Private healthcare cover and life assurance
• Summer Hours
• Free access to HeadSpace, employee assistance programme (24 hour helpline), mental health first aiders, and a wellbeing portal
• Season ticket loans (from day 1 for entry level) and cycle to work scheme
• Relocation Rent Support Loan
• Employee networks: HC All In (open forum), Elevate (for ethnic minority colleagues), HarperParents, Menopause at Work, Pride at HC, Social Mobility Network and Neurodiversity at Work
• Unlimited training on our Learning and Development portal, management courses (up to MA level) and mentoring programmes
• Virtual GP and eyecare vouchers
• Gym membership discount
• Onsite physiotherapy (London only)
• Charitable donation matching and 2 volunteering days
• We're a certified Carbon Neutral company
• Free e-books and audiobooks, digital newspaper subscriptions and discounts on books
• Subsidised canteen and retail discounts
• Onsite prayer room

At HarperCollins, we value authenticity and integrity in our recruitment process. To ensure a fair and accurate evaluation of all applications, we ask that all responses to assessment questions reflect your own thoughts, experiences, and capabilities. This allows us to fairly assess your knowledge, skills, and experience to determine how they align with the role. We value diverse perspectives and genuine contributions, even if answers are not perfect. The use of AI tools or external assistance to generate responses is discouraged unless explicitly permitted for specific tasks.

If you wish to discuss anything regarding this position and/or your application to this role, please reach out directly to tarni.crossley-lees@harpercollins.co.uk with subject heading ‘Vacancy Query’ plus the job title and we will aim to get back to you within 5 working days.

Please note, if you are interested in the role you would need to submit your application via Applied. We do not accept email applications.

We welcome and encourage applications from candidates who are under-represented in the creative industries.

Please make sure that you state in your application that you found this role via Creative Access.