Foreign rights assistant

Closing date: 19th January 2025

Salary: £26,500 per annum

Reporting to: Foreign Rights Manager

Contract type: Permanent

Working hours: Full Time

Location: Vauxhall, London (Hybrid Post Probation)

This is a unique and varied entry-level opportunity for a self-motivated individual looking to work in Children’s Publishing and launch their career in Foreign Rights. 

Walker Books UK is part of the vibrant international Group that includes Candlewick Press, Holiday House, Peachtree and Pixel + Ink in the USA and Walker Books Australia. Renowned for its truly original publishing and outstanding quality, the Walker Books Group is home to a wide range of children's and young adult books. 

Award-winning authors and illustrators for the group include Angie Thomas, Sydney Smith, M.T Anderson, Patrick Ness, and Jon Klassen. We are also enormously proud to publish beloved family brands including Lucy Cousin’s Maisy, Michael Rosen’s We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram’s Guess How Much I Love You and Martin Handford’s Where’s Wally?

Within this role, you will provide support to a busy and dynamic international Foreign Rights team selling rights worldwide. You will get the opportunity to be involved in a broad range of tasks and projects. You will use your initiative and multi-tasking skills in this pivotal role to support the sales and administrative needs of the Foreign Rights team and liaise closely with a number of internal teams such as design, editorial, production, publicity and marketing in a fast-paced environment. This is an exciting opportunity to work with the Walker Books Group on débuts, award-winning and best-selling children’s books with customers from all around the world, across a wide range of formats, such as picture books, non-fiction, novelty and major licensed brands. 

Key responsibilities 

• Support sale fulfilment in assigned territories to account managers including:
  • Oversee fulfilment of foreign-language editions of our titles, from confirmation of order to shipping. 
  • Liaise with production, IT, Pre-press, Marketing and Legal departments.
  • Maintain up-to-date records on progress of sales/print runs.
  • Follow up local publication dates and author copies, and update databases accordingly.
• Coordinate printing requests from the team and liaise with the Production department on schedules and costings for first printings and reprints. 
• Coordinate and submit printed marketing materials for international trade events. 
• Provide administrative support to sales, including scheduling meetings, managing correspondence, and maintaining client records. 
• Manage the Foreign Rights Inbox for external customer queries. 
• Manage the department’s supply of finished copies.
• Organise and update the Foreign Rights archive with finished copies. 
• Conduct market research and stay informed about industry trends and developments. 
• Manage and support organise industry events, book fairs and sales trips, including:
  • Setting up the timetables for fair attendees;
  • Liaising with our stand management companies on set up and organisation of the fairs (stand location/fair passes/furniture and equipment);
  • Maintaining an up-to-date list of attendees, including authors and illustrators; 
  • Booking accommodation;
  • Overseeing organisation of customer dinners;
  • Coordinating travel currency;
  • Maintaining up to date knowledge on any health and safety guidelines relating to travel and fair attendance;
  • Organising distribution of the leaflets to agents and in-house;
  • Manage administrative fair preparation tasks prior to attendance.
• Subject to further role development, attending fairs and customer meetings abroad.
• Ad-hoc tasks as required.

Please note the above is not an exhaustive list and does not necessarily include all the duties the job holder may have to perform. This job description may be amended to meet changing needs of the business.

Knowledge, skills and experience

• Excellent interpersonal skills, have the confidence in communicating with other departments as well as foreign publishers. 
• Excellent time-management, organisational and administrative skills. 
• An ability to use initiative and work calmly under pressure with a ‘can-do’ / proactive approach to problem-solving. 
• An ability to prioritise work given specific deadlines, juggling multiple projects and requests without close supervision, with meticulous attention to detail.
• An understanding of the importance of a sales support role in relation to customer service and business development. 
• An appreciation of working with, and making a positive contribution to, a busy and dynamic international sales team. 
• Excellent working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications, in particular Microsoft Excel.
• Mathematical and analytical skills are advantageous, as well as a high standard of written English.
• An interest and understanding of foreign cultures; foreign language skills will be advantageous but not essential. 
• An interest in international publishing would be advantageous, but no prior publishing experience is necessary in order to apply for the role.
• Highly self-motivated, enjoys working as part of a team, and also able to work independently.

What we offer

• Hybrid working (at least two days in the office per week) once you have successfully passed probation
• 22 days annual leave per year plus bank holidays (with annual leave increasing with length of service up to 27 days)
• Enhanced Pension Scheme
• Health Insurance and Health Cash Plan
• Life Assurance
• Enhanced Maternity and Paternity Pay
• Access to an Employee Assistance Programme
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Plus, other great benefits!

We are an equal opportunities employer and believe that a diverse and inclusive workforce encourages creativity and innovative working environment. We are committed to equal treatment and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. It is important that our teams represent all our readers, their families and their communities and we welcome and encourage all applications.

If you have any queries about this role or require any reasonable adjustments for your application or throughout the recruitment process, please let our team know by contacting us at recruitment@walker.co.uk.

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

Please note we reserve the right to close vacancies before the closing date where we have received sufficient applications. We recommend submitting your application as early as possible to avoid disappointment.