Sales & marketing assistant/executive

Closing date for applications: Wednesday 8th April 2026

Salary: Starting £24,840+ dependent on experience (+bonus +benefits)

Location: Chichester, West Sussex

Kickstart your career in publishing by helping drive book sales, manage accounts and turn insights into commercial success.

Octopus publish books for everyone. We love to enlighten, nourish, entertain and most of all inspire readers and listeners everywhere. Octopus is a division 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. An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the busy Sales team at Summersdale Publishers in Chichester as Sales and Marketing Assistant/Executive.

What you'll be doing

• Reporting to the Head of Sales, you will be responsible for supporting and contributing to the sales team to maximise sales and profit.
• You will be responsible for some of your own accounts as well as proving support to the Head of Sales for some of the larger key accounts.
• You will also be responsible for running analysis and reports and delivering against a budget.

Who we are looking for

• We’re looking for a candidate with a passion for books and sales, excellent communication skills and a high level of organisation.
• We’re looking for a team player with attention to detail, an ability to multi-task and prioritise, and an enthusiasm for working in a fast-moving commercial environment.
• The successful candidate will be committed to building internal and external relationships, supporting divisional strategy and beating sales budgets.
• You will ideally have knowledge or experience of the book trade or publishing, but this is not essential.
• You must be willing to work across all departments as required.
• Excellent Microsoft Office skills (especially Excel and PowerPoint) and data analysis skills are essential.

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
• 12 Staff-led employee networks that are voluntary, including AgeWise, Gender Balance, Thrive, Pride, All Together, Wellbeing and religious networks
• Season ticket loans
• And much more!

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

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 need us to make any adjustments to help you attend your interview, please let us know.

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.