Editorial Assistant

**Job Title: Editorial Assistant

Department: Macmillan Children’s Books (Julia Donaldson)

Contract: Full-time, permanent** This is an exciting opportunity for an efficient and enthusiastic individual to join our friendly publishing team, working on the full range of publishing by bestselling author Julia Donaldson, including picture books, novelty, activity, gift and poetry.

Your team: As a dedicated division within Macmillan Children’s Books (MCB), we are the home of Julia Donaldson, the UK’s bestselling author. Our wide-ranging portfolio spans everything from the picture books Julia is best known for to novelty titles for toddlers and poetry anthologies for older readers.

Our list features iconic, bestselling collaborations with many renowned illustrators, including Julia’s partnership with the UK’s number one illustrator, Axel Scheffler, creating modern classics from The Gruffalo to the Tales from Acorn Wood lift-the-flap series. We also publish chart-topping books with Lydia Monks (the What the Ladybird Heard series) and Sara Ogilvie (including the recent bestseller, Gozzle).

We are a small, highly focused team and work closely with our colleagues across Design, Production, Sales, Marketing and Rights to bring these world-class titles to life.

Your role: As Editorial Assistant, you will play a crucial role in supporting the editorial process from start to finish. You will be responsible for the smooth running of our administrative operations and supporting the Senior Editorial team with important editorial and administrative tasks to help us ensure our books stay on track and are of the highest quality. You will have the opportunity to assist in the development and production of a wide range of children’s books, including novelty titles, picture books, activity books, gift books and audiobooks. Reporting to the Publishing Director, you will be a key support across the development of new titles and have responsibility for our reprints and management of backlist titles. We are looking for someone who is passionate about children’s books, is highly efficient and can multitask and meet deadlines.

Your key responsibilities:

• Team support: Provide day-to-day administrative and editorial support to the Publishing Director and Publisher of the Julia Donaldson list for MCB.
• Meeting coordination: Prepare agendas, schedule internal and external meetings, take clear meeting notes and follow up on action points.
• Database management: Use our internal publishing systems (such as Biblio, Vista and Tableau) to set up new book profiles and keep information accurate.
• Metadata & market research: Check and update book data (metadata) to ensure our titles are easy to find online and look up sales figures as required.
• Financial administration: Process invoices, raise payment paperwork and track down late payments, ensuring our authors, illustrators and suppliers are paid on time.
• Production coordination: Help coordinate book reprints and special sales editions by supplying updated text, files and schedules to our production teams.
• Editorial assistance: Help draft clear back-cover copy, read through layouts and provide proofreading support to ensure text accuracy.

Essential experience, abilities, knowledge and values you’ll need to succeed:

• Attention to detail and accuracy: Exceptional precision and care across all tasks, with the ability to proofread text and spot even the most minor of errors.
• Data and numeracy skills: A high comfort level working with numbers and data, including the ability to compile sales reports and analyze market metrics to support key business decisions.
• Administrative excellence: Effective organizational skills with a proven ability to prioritize tasks and manage a varied workflow effectively.
• Industry knowledge: A demonstrable passion for children’s books and the publishing industry, particularly for Macmillan Children’s Books lists, across a variety of formats including picture books, novelty, activity and gift books.
• Clear and effective communication: Effective written and spoken communication skills, with the ability to share information reliably and professionally.
• Solution-oriented: A proactive approach to problem-solving and the ability to adapt to changing business needs while maintaining high standards of accuracy and attention to detail.
• Software/tools: Experience working with systems and tools such as MS Office…