Sales assistant

Salary: £28,250 based in London; £26,000 based in Sheffield (+bonus +benefits)

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

Step into non-trade sales, supporting key accounts and customers with Hachette’s books, gifts, games and stationery.

Hachette UK is a creative powerhouse and the UK's second largest book publishing group. Our mission is to make it easy for everyone to discover new worlds of ideas, learning, entertainment and opportunity.

We're made up of 10 autonomous publishing divisions and over 60 imprints with a rich and diverse history and an incredible range of authors. We're also the market leader in e-books and publish a range of bestsellers in audio format, the fastest growing part of our business.

Our award-winning adult publishing divisions are Little, Brown, which won Publisher of the Year at the 2026 British Book Awards; Orion (2021 Publisher of the Year Award Winner); John Murray Press; Hodder & Stoughton; Headline; Octopus, and Bookouture. They publish fiction and non-fiction in digital, audio and print format, from the world's best and most diverse authors, including Brit Bennett, Candice Carty-Williams, Martina Cole, Michael Connelly, John Grisham, Stephen King, Stieg Larsson, Nelson Mandela, Stephenie Meyer, Maggie O'Farrell, Delia Owens, Ian Rankin, J.K. Rowling, Colson Whitehead, and Malala Yousafzai. Hachette Children's Group publishes a wide and vibrant range of books for children across all age ranges, while Hachette Learning is a market leader in resources for both primary and secondary schools.

Hachette UK is part of Hachette Livre, the world's third largest trade and educational publisher. As well as our headquarters in Carmelite House, London, and our state-of-the-art book distribution centre in Didcot, Oxfordshire, we have recently opened five new offices in Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield, Newcastle, and Edinburgh. The UK region also includes offices in Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, the Caribbean, and Ireland.

It's an exciting time to join our business because the publishing market continues to grow and thrive. The UK remains the largest exporter of physical books in the world and book adaptations for film and TV are the foundation of the UK's creative industries.

What you'll be doing

Working in the Group Non Trade team and specifically within the Gift and Business Development teams selling across the HUK's portfolio (books, gifts, games and stationery) with some of our key accounts. This is a great opportunity to gain experience across a number of channels. Working closely with the Sales Directors for Non-Trade, Key Account Director - Non Trade and the rest of the NT team. This is a varied role working across the team - core duties include the following:

• Provide administrative support to the Non-Trade Sales Director and wider Gift/Non trade team
• Deal with day-to-day customer support including processing orders and dealing with general queries
• Manage customer queries and responding in a timely manner
• Attend all relevant internal meetings, including key publisher meetings, specifically the imprint Non-Trade meetings,
• Help co-ordinate and attend relevant Trade/Consumer Fair Attendance (Top Drawer) alongside the rest of the team
• Share findings of gift market activity in relevant messaging (team meeting, staff briefings, staff news etc)
• Providing support on accounts which require additional operational processing, for example using supplier portals
• Following all Non Trade processes and protocols as advised by direct line manager and Sales Directors.
• Keeping the external hachettegift.co.uk website up to date with new titles regularly as and when required

Who we are looking for

• Passionate about books and gifts and has a keen eye for lifestyle trends
• Experience of working in publishing would be helpful but not essential
• Someone who has experience of working in an office and/or with customer service experience
• Good customer and internal communication skills are a must for this role. Replying to customers (internal and external) within our SLAs and with a professional tone is critical.
• Excellent attention to detail with good administrative skills and able to thrive in a fast paced environment
• Can- do atittude and willingness to learn

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
• An active range of staff-led employee networks that are voluntary, including AgeWise, Gender Balance, Thrive, Pride, All Together, Wellbeing, Women in Techand 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.

We want everyone to have the opportunity to perform at their best during our recruitment process. If you need any adjustments, you can let us know at the ‘Reasonable Adjustments’ section of your application. We’ll make sure you’re supported throughout the process.

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.