Editorial Assistant – Vintage

VINTAGE is looking for an enthusiastic, organised and creative Editorial Assistant to join the editorial team at Vintage’s prestigious non-fiction imprint The Bodley Head. This is an exciting opportunity for someone with a love of high-quality non-fiction who is starting out in the industry, or for an existing Editorial Assistant looking to move into this area of publishing.

About the team

Our imprint publishes around 35 books each year across a wide range of subjects including history, science, technology, big ideas, the natural world, and global current affairs, to deeply reported narrative non-fiction and memoir. We publish high-quality and long-lasting books by authors of exceptional talent such as Merlin Sheldrake, Angela Rayner, Lady Hale, Ai Weiwei, Oliver Burkeman, Timothy Snyder, Ed Yong, Mustafa Suleyman and Yanis Varoufakis. Recent publications include Alexei Navalny’s Patriot, Gisèle Pelicot’s A Hymn to Life, James Fox’s Craftland and Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares’ If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies. Whatever the subject, we seek out experts who are captivating writers, whose books expand minds and shape the culture.

The role

The Editorial Assistant plays a key role in supporting the smooth running of the imprint team. Working closely with the Publishing Director and the wider editorial team, you’ll provide essential administrative and editorial support across a busy and varied list. You’ll be a central point of contact for colleagues across the business, as well as for authors and agents, helping to keep projects moving and ensuring information is shared clearly and efficiently. This role would suit a friendly, organised and proactive team player with excellent communication skills, strong attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple tasks and deadlines with confidence. You’ll report to the Publishing Director.

Key responsibilities:

• Reading and reporting on proposals and submissions
• Drafting copy for internal and external circulation
• Working with authors to brief, assemble, and proofread maps, diagrams, and internal images for their titles
• Managing the internal book process, including scheduling, compiling the jacket and cover copy, populating ATI, liaising with the author, and liaising internally with Managing Editorial, Production, Design, Marketing and Publicity, Sales, and Rights departments
• Acting as a point of contact for authors and agents, answering questions where possible and passing other queries to manager.
• Provide excellent author care at all times, often to high profile authors.
• Keeping all title data up-to-date, complete and high quality at all times.
• Sending advanced review copies and early finished copies to editorial influencers
• Sending reviews, bound proofs and finished copies / foreign editions to authors and agents
• Dealing with customer complaints (e.g. typos, missing pages, correspondence to customers)
• Coding invoices, arranging author payments and invoices with Royalties and Purchase Ledger department
• Monitoring and issuing take-down notices for infringing material posted online
• Taking minutes for department meetings and circulating with colleagues

What you’ll bring:

• High degree of literacy and writing skills
• Good awareness of the current external media market
• Highly organised with the ability to multitask and handle competing priorities
• Exceptional time management skills and the ability to work to tight deadlines, sometimes under pressure
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to communicate effectively to a wide range of people
• The ability to work autonomously using initiative
• Dedication to being creative and innovative

If you have opted into our disability confident scheme, the above are the essential criteria you must meet to be considered for our interview scheme. Please note, there may be occasions where the volume of applicants means we can’t take all eligible candidates to interview.

Here at Penguin, we believe in the power of authenticity and human creativity. When you apply for a position, we want to encourage you to showcase your unique voice. Throughout our recruitment process, please share your own thoughts, experiences, and skills. This helps us get a true sense of who you are and what you might bring to our team. We celebrate creativity and diverse perspectives, so please be yourself! While we recognise AI tools can be helpful, we recommend using them thoughtfully to ensure your responses reflect you.

While our offices across the UK are places to connect, collaborate and celebrate with colleagues, we recognise that flexibility around where you work is just as important. For this role we expect the successful candidate to work from our London-based office three days per week, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and offer the remaining two days to be worked remotely.