Description

Closing Date: 27-May-2024

Are you driven by insatiable curiosity about the world – from history and politics to pop culture and memoir – and constantly wanting the world to know about new debates and ideas?
If so, we have an exciting opportunity for an Editor/Commissioning Editor to join Viking, the home of best-sellers, prize-winners and culture-shifters.
About Viking
At Viking we love publishing books that combine brilliant writing with popular appeal, that hit the bestseller lists, win prizes and shed light on the world around us. In non-fiction, our authors range from world leaders to sporting legends, from cutting-edge scientists to prize-winning historians, and from distinguished journalists to eminent philosophers; whatever field they’re in, they’re best in class, and brilliant communicators. They include Will Buxton, The Cultural Tutor, Anna Funder, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Jonathan Liew, Natasha Lunn, Ben Macintyre, Sinclair McKay, Kelsey McKinney, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, John Preston, Vaclav Smil, Devi Sridhar and Leor Zmigrod, and our catalogue includes books by Anne Frank, Art Spiegelman  and Malcolm X.
The Opportunity
In this role, you will work as part of a team that is collaborative and supportive, pro-active and entrepreneurial. We work hard to nurture individual talent as part of our collective success. At Penguin General, we strive for working life to be progressive, energising, motivating and rewarding for all our colleagues at every level.
Reporting to the Publishing Director, and joining a team of six, this role will be responsible for commissioning around 8-10 new non-fiction titles a year with a particular focus on pop culture, history and “memoir plus”, ideally with international potential, that will sell for years to come. We are particularly keen for this role to focus on female voices and female-led writing, too.
In the role, you can also expect to be:
Generating books for publishing in part through being on top of trends and proactively seeking out new opportunities
Managing the complete publishing cycle of your books, liaising with key departments across the business, authors, agents and other external partners
Working with the Publishing Director on bigger titles and key authors
Networking to create and maintain strong relationships with authors, agents and other partners in the UK and internationally
A strong team player and an advocate for your books and the Viking list
What you’ll bring
We are looking for a creative, highly motivated individual with proven talent and high potential. You will be knowledgeable about the market, full of ideas and confident in collaborating from start to finish of each book.
The ability to work effectively under pressure while keeping to schedule is essential, as are strong organisational skills and attention to detail.  You’ll be confident joining some projects halfway through and picking up where others left off.  You’ll be an excellent communicator, able to write persuasive cover copy and make convincing verbal pitches, as well as create and maintain matchless author relationships. You will also actively engage with Penguin Random House’s diversity and inclusion goals.
Perhaps you currently work for another non-fiction publisher or academic publisher or are used to working with journalists and academics.  Whatever your background, you’ll have the network to draw upon for your new ideas and understand how to make those books a success through your previous experience.
About Penguin:
We’re the UK’s largest publisher; made up of some 2,000 people and publishing over 1,500 books each year. Our doors are open to all kinds of talent. In a constantly evolving industry, we work hard to stretch the definition of the word publisher. Here, you’ll work with a breadth of talent who all play their part to make each of our books a success. Together, we make books for everyone because a book can change anyone.
How to apply
If this sounds like your next role, please apply with your CV, a cover letter by midnight on Monday 27th May. As part of your cover letter, we’d like you to write 150 words each on three ideas for books that you would like to commission at Viking.
Salary: We are open to hiring either at Editor or Commissioning Editor level.  The salary will be circa £34,000 depending on how your skills and experience align with the role, plus bonus and benefits.
Competitive benefits package: Our people are the heart of our business, and we work hard to support a culture of responsibility and recognition.
Our benefits include:
Financial – income protection, life assurance, childcare allowance
Wellbeing - healthcare cash plan, critical illness cover, health checks
Lifestyle – enhanced parental leave, tech scheme,
For our full benefits list please visit: https://www.penguinrandomhousecareers.co.uk/what-we-offer/
Hybrid working: We’re experimenting with a hybrid way of working that suits the needs of each team. 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, some meetings will need to be attended in person at our offices in Pimlico around three days a week.  Please note that over the course of 2024 all of our London-based teams will permanently relocate to our Embassy Gardens office in Nine Elms. We’ll be happy to answer any questions on this as part of the interview process.
The recruitment process: You can read about our recruitment process at https://www.penguinrandomhousecareers.co.uk/how-we-hire/
As a Disability Confident Committed organisation, we're part of the offer an interview scheme. This is where disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role can opt in to get to the next recruitment stage. There may be some situations where volume of applicants means we can't take all eligible candidates to interview. We encourage you to tell us about any reasonable adjustments you may need by emailing PRHCareersUK@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk. Remember, you only need to share what you are comfortable to for us to support your request.