Publishing contracts advisor

Starting salary: £30,000 pa

Location: London

Contract: permanent, full time (35 hours per week). Flexible and hybrid working options available.

Reports to: Sarah Burton, Deputy Chief Executive and Head of the Contracts Advisory Team

If you are passionate about authors’ rights, this crucial and varied role offers an opportunity to be part of a busy team who are all committed to improving the working terms and conditions for authors.

The Society of Authors (SoA) is the UK trade union for all kinds of writers, including illustrators, scriptwriters and literary translators. We’ve been advising individual authors and speaking out for the profession since 1884. With 12,500 members and 34 staff, the SoA provides unlimited, free advice on all aspects of the profession, including the confidential, clause-by-clause vetting of publishing agreements, publications and a wide range of benefits.

We work to empower authors through with individual and collective advice, campaigning, professional training, events, conferences, special interest groups and community networks. We also manage around 14 charities which provide prizes and grants to authors, and we administer over 50 literary estates.

Join us to make a positive difference in the publishing the industry.

What you’ll be doing:

You will work as part of our Contracts Advisory team, which offers SoA members the confidential, individual vetting of a range of contracts, from publishers, production companies, literary agencies and others, and advice on a broad range of queries relating to the business of writing. There are further opportunities to get involved in the wider activities of the SoA, such as outreach projects, participating in events, and supporting authors via our special interest groups and professional networks.

Key responsibilities:

• Responding to member queries on all aspects of the business of publishing (please note you are not expected to be familiar with all aspects from the outset).
• Vetting the contracts offered to members of the Society of Authors.
• Advising on and supporting members in their negotiations and issues.
• Attending occasional work and/or industry evening events.

The duties above outline the broad areas of responsibility of the role. The SoA reserves the right to include other relevant duties as needed.

Who we are looking for:

We don’t expect you to have all the knowledge from the outset. We’ll train you in the detail. We’re looking for someone with the thirst to learn and the ability to understand complex issues and to be able to communicate these to members. It’s important to understand that authors may be feeling vulnerable when they come to us for support therefore you should be empathetic and comfortable handling sensitive communications (whether verbally or in writing).

The ideal candidate will be:

• Motivated to learn. Someone who is comfortable working closely with authors.
• Meticulous attention to detail.
• Good verbal and written communication skills. You should be able to write clearly and succinctly.
• A flexible, proactive attitude to self-managed work.
• Able to work as part of a busy team but also able to work with minimal supervision, managing and prioritising your own workload.
• A keen interest in and understanding of the issues facing authors across the industry.
• Experienced in Microsoft Office 365 applications: Outlook, Teams, Sharepoint (or similar).

Desirable but not essential:

1-2 years’ experience within a publisher’s contracts/rights department or within a literary agency.

What we offer:

All staff have the option to work from our Bloomsbury office, or a combination of home and office working is available. In addition, we offer:

• A supportive and collaborative hybrid working environment.
• 1-1 mentoring from an experienced member of the team.
• Varied professional development opportunities to help you make the most of the role.

Our staff benefits include:

• Flexible, family-friendly, disability confident working practices.
• Generous annual leave
• Salary exchange pension scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Private healthcare options
• Death-in-service benefit (8 x salary)
• Interest-free annual travel card loan

Inclusion, diversity, and representation are at the core of our values, and we work to tackle structural discrimination and prejudice. Part of this commitment means that we are looking to increase diversity in our organisation at all levels. We strongly encourage applications from a broad range of social, cultural, educational, and underrepresented backgrounds.

Accessibility

If any part of this advert or process is not accessible to you, please get in touch to tell us what you need in order to apply.

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.