Foreign rights & North American sales assistant

Closing date: 14th May 2025

Salary: £27,000 (+bonus +benefits)

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

Build partnerships with international publishers and help Octopus titles find audiences around the world in this entry-level role.

Octopus publish books for everyone. We love to enlighten, nourish, entertain and most of all inspire readers and listeners everywhere. Octopus is a division of Hachette, one of the largest publishing groups in the UK, with 11 publishing divisions and over 60 imprints. Everyone here is proud to be in the business of opening doors and minds.

We publish across a number of imprints, with strong illustrated publishing spanning a wide range of subjects, including cookery, lifestyle, craft, interiors, and mind, body & spirit. Our bestselling titles include Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour and The World Atlas of Coffee by James Hoffmann. We are proud to publish bestselling authors such as Diana Henry, Florence Given, and Fern Brady; leading brands including Vogue, Leon, and Wagamama; as well as health bestsellers from authors like Michael Mosley.

The Foreign Rights & North American departments play a key role in the global reach of our publishing, building partnerships with international publishers and helping Octopus titles find audiences around the world. The successful candidate will provide efficient and proactive administrative support to our Foreign Rights & North American sales. This is a varied and fast-paced role, ideal for a dynamic, highly organised individual who is eager to contribute to a collaborative international team.

What you'll be doing

• Providing administrative assistance to the wider Foreign Rights & North American sales teams, including mono and illustrated teams.
• Managing and distributing all sales materials in collaboration with editorial and design departments.
• Answering enquiries from foreign publishers and supporting international customer relations.
• Assisting the North American sales team to drive sales through Hachette Book Group USA
• Organising schedules and material logistics for book fairs and international sales trips.
• Creation of the Foreign Rights catalogue and collecting information for the Mono Rights guide.
• Organising send outs of sales material to international publishers.
• Contributing to internal and external marketing and sales pitch creation.
• Preparing sales quotes

Who we are looking for

Essential

• Admin and general office skills
• Organisational and prioritisation skills
• Knowledge of MS Office (Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint)
• Understanding of the publishing process
• Good customer service skills
• Strong numeracy skills
• Ability to Multi-task

Experience of the following is a plus but not essential

• Knowledge of Pub Tracker, US Bookscan online sales analysis, Biblio
• Familiarity with Indesign

Additional information

The role reports into the Head of Rights – France & Quebec with dotted line reporting to North American Sales Director and Administration Assistant – North American Sales.

The role will sit within the Foreign Rights Department and provides support to multiple team members, including managers and directors of both Foreign Rights (illustrated & Mono) & North America

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
• Dental 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.

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

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