The Next Chapter internship 2026
Salary: £27,000 pro rata
Location: The placement is designed to be fully virtual, but there will also be the opportunity to spend time at one of our UK offices (London, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Manchester and Bristol).
Internship dates: Interns will join us for six consecutive weeks for one of the following placements - 7th September-16th October & 19th October-27th November
Designed for people at any stage of their career, this internship helps you transition into publishing with real, practical experience.
Hodder & Stoughton and Orion are divisions of Hachette, one of the largest publishing groups in the UK, with 10 publishing divisions and over 60 imprints. Everyone here is proud to be in the business of opening doors and minds.
The Orion Publishing Group publishes commercial, award-winning fiction, non-fiction and gift, and is home to bestselling authors and brands such as Ian Rankin, Adam Kay, Michael Connelly, Emily English, Stephanie Garber, Brandon Sanderson, Cathy Bramley, Philippe Sands, Candice Carty-Williams, the World Of puzzle series and the Hairy Bikers. At Orion, we believe every story matters. Open, agile, passionate and innovative, our mission is to bring the best publishing to the greatest variety of people. Ambitious to continually raise the bar, we believe good stories can come from anywhere and so encourage and value contributions from everybody here.
Hodder & Stoughton
For the past 150 years and counting, Hodder & Stoughton has proudly published quality, bestselling fiction and non-fiction across some of the biggest brands in the world, and across a multitude of genres. Our authors include Stephen King, John Grisham, David Nicholls, Callie Hart, Lucy Score, Abi Dare, Zakia Sewell, Michael Morpurgo, Sir Chris Hoy, Liz Earle and Pierce Brown. We have enjoyed countless bestsellers, celebrated hundreds of awards and welcomed authors and colleagues from every part of the world through our doors. This year, we celebrate our literary imprint Sceptre's 40th Birthday, and the launch of our new romance list, Midnight.A passion for creativity, inclusivity and drive for ambition are imprinted on everything we have done throughout the past century and a half, and on what we do now.
What you'll be doing
Are you returning to work after a break or looking to completely change your career? If so, the Next Chapter Internship wants to hear from you.
We are welcoming applications from people with diverse, real-life experience gained outside of publishing. Hachette believes that publishing should be for everyone, at any stage of their career and in any role. This is why we are specifically targeting this scheme towards people who have started their career and spent time away from work for any reason, or are looking to make a career change.
The Next Chapter Internship is an exciting opportunity for you to see how a major publishing house works, gain invaluable insight into the publishing industry and learn about the role that each department plays in every step of a book’s journey.
We are offering a six-week, paid work experience placement at either The Orion Publishing Group or Hodder & Stoughton. The placement is designed to be fully virtual, but there will also be the opportunity to spend time at one of our UK offices (London, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Manchester and Bristol).
You will be placed within a department and given the opportunity to fully immerse yourself in the role, team and company, working on projects and gaining a thorough understanding of the publishing process. You will also have the opportunity to gain experience across different departments – attending a variety of company meetings, as well as the chance to meet lots of different people across the company and senior team and receive informal mentoring or career guidance.
Interviews will take place from 29th June-10th July. If you have not received an update after 15th June, please assume that your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.
Who we are looking for
We value the experience gained from all different kinds of jobs, and we encourage applicants from all walks of life. We are looking for someone that has a passion for storytelling; someone that is keen to learn; someone pro-active with a strong work ethic and a desire to apply their transferable skills to a new challenge.
To be eligible, you must be over 18 and based in the UK. Please note this is the minimum requirement and we welcome people of all ages to apply. We are welcoming applicants with no previous publishing experience.
When applying for this role, we expect all candidates to complete their application questions without the use of AI
Please refer to the FAQ document provided before applying.
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 require any reasonable adjustments to support you in the recruitment process, you will have an opportunity to make this request in your application.
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
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.
Level of experience
- Entry