Science fiction and fantasy intern

Closing date for applications: Sunday 6th April at 23:55

Salary: Our summer interns are paid the London living wage.

Duration: Summer interns will be expected to join us in the business for 8 weeks from Monday 30th June 2025.

Hours: Please note that this is a full-time hybrid position. You will be working from 9:30am to 5:30pm 5 days per week, unless otherwise agreed with your line manager and HR.

Location: You will be expected to be in person in our London office for at least 2 days per week.

Join our brand new science fiction and fantasy imprint at Transworld and help bring compelling stories to life.

Gain hands-on experience in editorial, marketing, and publicity while engaging with a passionate community of genre fiction readers.

A bit about the team:

At Transworld, we love great storytelling. In books and stories we find our community – of authors, readers and colleagues. We publish the UK’s very best and most-loved fiction and non-fiction. Our authors are master storytellers, commercial giants, and game-changing experts who challenge readers to open their hearts and minds. A Transworld book demands to be discussed, shared, and loved.

This year, Transworld is launching a brand-new fantasy imprint in partnership with the book subscription service, FairyLoot. The new imprint combines Transworld’s publishing expertise, brand building and commercial drive with FairyLoot’s unparalleled taste-making talent and deeply engaged, growing audience of genre fiction devotees. You’ll be working across three departments as we prepare to launch the new imprint, Editorial, Marketing and Publicity.

Projects you’ll be working on:

You’ll gain unique insight into working on a brand-new SFF imprint across three departments, Editorial, Publicity and Marketing. You’ll learn how we acquire, edit and publish groundbreaking SFF books, and gain hands-on experience in every stage of a book’s life cycle, including reading and assessing submissions, drafting engaging cover copy, putting the book into production, creating compelling metadata, and compiling research.

You’ll be immersed in the publishing process, from creative and strategic conversations to planning how to enhance an author’s manuscript and monitoring new trends and competing titles from other publishers. You’ll also help spot exciting new book opportunities and the authors readers are most excited about.

You’ll help the Marketing department with social media responsibilities such as blogger outreach and research, content creation and managing channel content schedules, as well as managing communications with influencers and bloggers on social media and completing marketing mailings.

Alongside our Publicity team, you’ll compile SFF press mailing lists, identify key tastemakers in the SFF social media space and contribute creative ideas to campaign brainstorms. As part of our collaborative and creative team, you’ll build close relationships with different departments and develop the fundamental skills you’ll need to begin your publishing career.

• Skills you’ll develop:
  • Copywriting, proofreading, project management, prioritisation, communication, research, organisation, teamwork, attention to detail, editorial, market knowledge.

Tasks you’ll be doing might include:

• Logging, reading and reporting on Science Fiction and Fantasy submissions
• Updating metadata for our titles
• Researching what readers in the SFF space are looking for on TikTok and Instagram
• Conducting in-depth research into SFF genre media outlets and the coverage possibilities for these books
• Helping to coordinate mailings of our upcoming books
• Identifying new book influencers and key tastemakers across social media
• Managing communications with influencers and bloggers on social media
• Compiling press mailing lists for our SFF titles
• Contributing creative ideas to campaign brainstorms for SFF titles
• Social media responsibilities such as blogger outreach and research, content creation and managing channel content schedules
• Assisting with admin support as necessary

Knowledge and skills you’ll develop:

• The opportunity to be part of launching an industry-leading imprint
• An understanding of the publishing process
• Experience evaluating and reporting on submissions made by an editor
• Knowledge of a growing market in publishing and understanding how to monitor trends
• Project management experience
• Communication skills

About our Summer Internship

This role is part of our summer internship programme at Penguin Random House UK. Please note that our summer internship is a positive action training programme, aimed at bringing new voices into the business. As a result, we will only be accepting applications from candidates who identify as coming from a lower socio-economic background. You can find more information on our website here: https://www.penguinrandomhousecareers.co.uk/training-programmes/internships/

You must also be over the age of 18 and have the existing right to work in the UK in order to apply for this internship role. Unfortunately, we are unable to sponsor Visas as the summer internship does not meet the minimum requirements for Visa sponsorship.

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