Commissioning editor / editorial director

Hachette UK

Closing date: 15th December 2024

Salary: £38,000 – £50,000 dependent on experience and location (+bonus +benefits)

Location: This role can be based at our London office, or at any of our regional offices in Sheffield, Edinburgh, Manchester or Bristol, with a blend of in-office (3 days) and homeworking (2 days) per week.

Turn fresh ideas into bestsellers with your eye for market trends and commercial success as a commissioning editor.

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 12 publishing divisions and over 60 imprints. Everyone here is proud to be in the business of opening doors and minds.

The Ilex imprint focuses on art, practical art, craft and photography aimed at an international market.

What you’ll be doing

• Commission and oversee projects on craft and practical art with c10 new titles per annum, with projected 1st year revenues of a minimum £1m
• Negotiate contracts with authors and agents
• Work closely with our sales teams to ensure good customer and market knowledge and an international focus in commissioning
• Work closely with authors on the structure/content of their book up to handover to managing editorial and retain an overview on projects thereafter to ensure that the vision, quality, as well as budget, for titles is retained
• Be up to speed with market conditions and regularly assess performance of own commissions
• Present relevant titles in sales presentations as necessary and ‘champion’ the books in house with PR and sales from conception to publication and beyond.
• Maintain backlist, refreshing and updating content and presentation where appropriate

What we’re looking for

• A passion for craft and practical art and be in tune with current trends.
• A nose for fresh commercial publishing opportunities
• Be highly persuasive in 1-1 and public contexts
• Excellent negotiation skills
• Practical book-making abilities
• Good contacts
• Able to work successfully in a team
• Ability to juggle deadlines and priorities to ensure the smooth running of the craft and practical art list.
• Have some experience of commissioning and be ready to move into a full commissioning role or already be commissioning a list elsewhere.
• Significant experience in international illustrated co-edition publishing

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
• 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 Gender Balance, Thrive, Pride, All Together, Wellbeing and 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.

If you are shortlisted and need us to make any adjustments to help you attend for interview, please let us know.

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

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