Publicity assistant, Canongate books

Closing date for applications: 18 August 2025

Salary: £25,500 (if Edinburgh-based) or £26,500 (if London-based)

Ready to start your publicity career? Help bring book campaigns to life at a leading independent publisher and gain hands-on experience working with authors, media and events.

Canongate Books is one of the UK’s leading independent publishers, B Corp certified and shortlisted for both Publisher of the Year and Independent Publisher of the Year at this year’s British Book Awards. We are known for our award-winning campaigns, collaborative approach and focus on author care. We’re looking for a publicity assistant to join the campaigns team full time on a permanent basis in our London or Edinburgh offices.

This is an exciting opportunity for a self-motivated individual seeking an entry level role in publicity at an independent publisher, with the opportunity to work directly with some of the leading authors in the industry.

The main purpose of the role is to provide administrative support to our busy publicity department. Our ideal candidate will be an enthusiastic and hardworking individual with an interest in media and events. They will have strong interpersonal and communication skills; strong attention to detail; experience in managing and prioritising a varied workload to meet deadlines; and ideally a working knowledge of Outlook and Microsoft applications.


Responsibilities

• Collating and saving media clippings from online monitoring service and weekly newspapers
• Collating the monthly blogger newsletter and fulfilling book requests
• Monthly bookseller submissions for category previews
• Admin for the publicity team which may include processing invoices, booking travel and accommodation, maintaining budgets, writing up meeting minutes, diary management, etc
• Providing production with quantities and delivery instructions for new titles
• Taking an active role in running the company’s digital channels
• Assisting in the smooth running of events and book signings (may involve weekends and evenings and travel around the UK)
• Supporting the team in the running of publicity campaigns

This is a full-time role reporting to the head of publicity.

To apply, please send your CV (including contact details for two references) and a covering letter to Lucy Zhou, head of publicity, detailing why you feel you are suitable for this role

Additional information

We offer a wide range of benefits shown on our website's Employee Benefits page

Canongate is committed to the principle of equal opportunity in employment and its employment policies for recruitment are designed to ensure that no job applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of age, disability, gender re-assignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity/paternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. If you don’t meet every requirement listed but believe you have the skills and experience to thrive in this role, we still want to hear from you.

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