Weekend and evening bookseller

Salary: £13.45 per hour (for over 18's), minimum hours 5.5 a week with potential for overtime.

Location: Sevenoaks, Kent

Turn your love of books into hands-on bookselling experience at a thriving independent bookshop.

First opened in 1948, the Sevenoaks Bookshop is a black-owned, truly independent haven for booklovers of all ages. Stocking the very best new books in every genre, our brilliant booksellers offer advice and inspiration whenever needed. We recently doubled in size, have a dedicated children's shop, packed full of books, puzzles and stationery and host regular book clubs, writers groups and author events.

What you'll be doing

We’re looking for a friendly book lover with a keen eye for detail, able to work methodically, independently, and part of a team. The role will involve serving at the till and our cafe, shelving books, answering the phone and helping customers during our normal shop hours, as well as some evenings working at our author events – in the bookshop and at off-site venues around Sevenoaks.

Who we are looking for

We’re a really friendly team and this is an ideal position for a person who may be considering a future career in books and interested in gaining experience in the book industry, or for someone looking for part time work in an inspiring environment surrounded by books. Please note that bookselling is an often physical job, with many hours of standing, and requiring the lifting of heavy boxes. Staging author events also involves moving furniture.

This is a fixed term, part-time position, finishing at the beginning of January 2027, working in our shop and cafe on Sundays, and at evening events (on and off-site). We’re looking for someone available to start at the end of August 2026, who will also be available to work extra weekday shifts to cover holidays and during the busy Christmas period.

We pride ourselves on reliability both to our customers and to our fellow team, and so preferred applicants will be those with reliable transportation or local access to the shop. Previous retail or hospitality experience is preferable, and full training will be given on our stock management system, other systems particular to our shop, and our cafe.

To apply

Interested applicants please apply with a CV and a cover letter detailing the following:

The last 3 books you read (book titles only)
Your all time favourite book (max of 3 sentences explaining why)
What’s your next read at the top of your reading pile (book title only)
What you would like to read more of (max of 3 sentences)

Applications that fail to include the above information will not be considered.

Applications will be closed on 31st July, or when we surpass our application quantity threshold.

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.