Publicity manager, Sales - Head of Zeus (maternity cover)

Closing date for applications: Sunday 5th January 2025

Salary: £36,000

Contract: Full-time, 12 month temporary maternity cover position

Head of Zeus is seeking a well-connected, creative and enthusiastic Publicity Manager to work across our Aries and AdAstra fiction imprints. This role is to cover a maternity leave and reports to the Head of Publicity.

From serial killers to spies, medieval soldiers to golden age crime, Aries is home to your very favourite characters. Our crime, thriller, action, adventure and horror imprint, publishes acclaimed authors including master of crime, Martin Edwards, award-winning historical fiction author Clare Whitfield and bestselling historian and broadcaster, Dan Jones. 

Ad Astra is high-concept, hard-core and literary Science Fiction and fantasy. Its authors include true stars of their genres: Cixin Liu, Hao Jingfang, Kelly Link, Ken Liu, A.G. Riddle, Adrian Tchaikovsky and Lavie Tidhar, to name just a few.

The Aries/AdAstra Publicity Manager will be part of our high-achieving, ambitious publicity team, working to deliver brilliant, sales-driving book campaigns and excellent author care for these imprints. This temporary role, to cover a maternity leave, is ideal for someone with previous experience of working in a busy publicity department and who has particular specialist knowledge of how to run successful crime/thriller and science fiction/fantasy PR campaigns.

Responsibilities

• Planning and running creative publicity campaigns for our Aries and AdAstra imprints and being the main point of contact for authors. 
• Developing and maintaining strong media relationships across print, broadcast, podcasts, events and the digital space. 
• Delivering excellent author care, from preliminary campaign planning meetings, through to launch and beyond.
• Working creatively to identify and pitch potential feature and interview opportunities for our authors
• Writing press releases and coordinating review copy mailings to targeted media lists.
• Organising launch parties as well as bookshop and festival events.
• Collaborating with Marketing colleagues on blogger mailings and early influencer proof mailouts.
• Participating in monthly imprint meetings and departmental planning meetings.
• Collaborating with colleagues in the wider Sales & Marketing and Editorial departments to develop joined up book campaigns.
• Providing PR support to other imprints when required, including advising junior colleagues. 
• Day to day administrative duties including managing prize submissions, booking author travel and reporting on publicity coverage and events to other departments and the wider company.   

Knowledge, skills and experience 

• Previous experience in a book publicity team; running own publicity campaigns and delivering excellent levels of author care. 
• Excellent contacts, including good relationships with sci-fi/fantasy and crime fiction event programmers and reviewers.
• Good understanding of the national media landscape, including digital media.
• Strong relationship building skills, both with internal colleagues and third parties.
• Excellent communication skills.
• A demonstrable ability to multi-task, prioritise and meet deadlines.
• A creative approach to finding new platforms to expand a campaign’s reach and find potential new readers 
• A demonstrable passion for crime/thriller and science fiction/fantasy books and the ability to convey this is essential

Additional information

The role is based at our London office: Head of Zeus, 5-8 Hardwick Street, London, EC1R 4RG on a hybrid working pattern of 2 days office based / 3 days home based (or fully office based if preferred).  Allocated office days for this role are: Tuesday and Wednesday 

Please apply with a CV and covering letter addressed to Human Resources (Word or PDF format only) via our URL detailing how you meet the requirements outlined above for this role by Sunday 5th January 2025.

For best results, please use a desktop to apply as some mobile browsers may not fully support the application portal.

Bloomsbury reserve the right to close the role early if we exceed the required number of applications

Bloomsbury Benefits

As well as a fantastic opportunity to join a global award-winning organisation, Bloomsbury offers the following competitive benefits package:

Working Pattern 

• Hybrid working pattern of: 2 days office based / 3 days home based (or fully office based if preferred)

Holidays

• 25 days holiday
• 3.5 days Christmas company holiday

 Other Benefits

• Two paid Personal Wellness Days
• Flexible Fridays – take Friday afternoon off by working an additional 3 hours and 30 minutes earlier in the week
• Work Anywhere Fortnight - For two weeks of any calendar year. The minimum period for Working Anywhere is one week, the maximum period is two weeks.
• Season Ticket Loan
• Share Save Scheme
• AXA Healthcare Plan (Private Medical Insurance)
• Peppy Health App
• In-house Doctor
• Eye Care Voucher Scheme

Company culture – Employee Voice Meetings, Staff Networks (Bloom, Accessibility, Mental Health, Pride, and Parents, Guardians and Carers, Multi-Faith) and 14 Mental Health First Aiders trained across the UK offices, Publishing Events and access to free Publishing Resources.

Bloomsbury is a place where anyone of any background, race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, gender identity, age, ability, or socio-economic status can thrive, feel comfortable, and be heard and accepted. We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all sections of the community.

We are willing to make any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process, please flag to the recruitment team if required

Applicants must have the legal right to work in the UK.  

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