Key roles

Whether you’re an editor on a mission to discover the next big thing, or an operations manager taking charge of the publishing process, everyone has a vital role to play here. Whatever you do, you’ll help shape our story in a leading creative industry. Explore the departments that could start a new chapter in your story.

As part of our initiative to make publishing more transparent and accessible to under-represented groups, we ran a number of panels – each focused on a different department – with three of our colleagues sharing their first-hand experiences of entry-level, mid-level and head-of-department roles; helping bring to life the opportunities and challenges of working in publishing today.

Communications

Stories cannot be told unless you get the word out there. That’s why our communications teams are as important as the books we sell. Working on book campaigns, press releases, social media, internal newsletters, websites and publications, when it comes to strong communication skills, the bar here is incredibly high (after all, when you’re supporting the world’s greatest writers, you need to make sure your story lands, too).

Consumer insight

Publishing is all about discovering new worlds of connection, bringing ideas and inspiration to audiences old and new. But how do publishers know who those people are? How do they decide the best ways to reach them? It’s the consumer insight team’s job to answer these questions. Experts on audiences, trends and data, they use this knowledge to help us connect with more people across the globe than ever before.

Design

People do judge books by their covers. That’s why our designers have one of the most important jobs in our industry. Making sure our end products are as beautiful and high-impact as they are ground-breaking, it’s all about standing out on the shelves for all the right reasons. Creating covers in-house, our team commission illustrators, attend photo shoots and conduct picture research to deliver the best overall design.

Digital

Our digital teams develop innovative digital products to make sure our publishers are competing in the right places and staying ahead of the curve. Digital also looks after our e-book and audio files and is responsible for providing them to online retailers. A growing team, digital is playing a huge part in how we connect with even wider audiences. We totally embrace it and want to go even further in this space.

Editorial

Responsible for developing the books we publish, our editors are always seeking to break new ground and have a keen sense of what works. Editorial involves reading submissions from literary agents and foreign publishers and editing books to make sure they are structurally sound and free from errors (factual, grammatical or typographical). Being widely read and plugged into the latest trends is a must here!

Finance

Experts in budgeting, forecasting and planning, our finance team have a relentless focus on making sure we spend money responsibly so that we stay profitable and can continue publishing great books. The finance team will also forecast how much money a book will make and analyse the risk of publishing a book before the publisher chooses to acquire it, so this team really is crucial in bringing stories to life.

HR

The goal of the HR team is to help everyone who works for us to be the best they can be. That also means making us the most creative, innovative and rewarding publishing company to work for. Attracting the most talented people to join, delivering initiatives to keep them motivated, engaged and performing – while also managing contracts, salaries and benefits – provides endless scope and opportunity for our HR team.

IT

The IT department makes sure that the publishing teams have the technology and systems they need to publish great books efficiently. They manage large projects such as renewing major systems, rolling out innovative websites and creating bespoke technology to streamline the book publishing process, as well as solving day-to-day problems for everyone in the company to make sure that their technology functions perfectly and our world runs smoothly.

Legal

All businesses need lawyers to make sure everything is done within legal requirements, particularly creative businesses like ours. Our in-house legal team of qualified lawyers provide expert advice to the publishing teams and business generally, such as on the content of books, trademarks and contracts with suppliers. The world is watching, so we need sharp legal minds around us to do justice to the stories we want to tell.

Marketing

Our marketing teams are constantly looking to discover new ways to connect with our customers and share our stories. Utilising all available digital and physical advertising platforms (from social to TV, magazines to outdoor), their job is to create audience anticipation for a new book even before publication. If you can inspire people to queue overnight for a story, this is the place to write your next chapter.

Operations

Working with every department, the operations team has an unparalleled overview of the entire publishing process. Operations makes sure that books flow smoothly from the moment of acquisition to the very end of their lives – on time, on budget and as efficiently as possible. Running key company meetings, operations sees that deadlines are met, books are in stock and we have the right information on our books for enquiries from the public.

Production

Our production teams show a consistent determination to get things done. This involves delivering the finished book, making sure it’s profitable for our business, keeping everything running on time and making sure it is as close to perfect as it can be. Production is all about detail, delivery and the determination to hit every deadline. Working with suppliers around the world, collaboration as well as creativity is a must here.

Publicity

Working closely with our authors, our publicity department is here to shine a spotlight on great talent and great work. Introducing new works to key audiences such as bookshops, librarians, teachers and the book-buying public, our publicists coordinate events and book tours, reviews and press, radio and TV interviews with our authors. Helping wider audiences discover untold stories, we’re always looking for new ways to connect with readers.

Rights and contracts

Protecting and selling the rights of our books is one of the most exciting aspects of our business. Our rights team sell translation rights, the rights to newspapers to serialise books and deal with film, audio and other rights to adapt and change books. Equally exciting is our contracts team who produce and finalise the contracts between the publisher, author and agents. It’s all about getting the best deal.

Sales

Understanding our consumers is the key to our success. To excite retailers such as Waterstones, Foyles, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, our role is to pitch new books and encourage them to display them in the best way to maximise sales. We also promote titles via online retailers like Amazon. Whatever the channel, we’re involved all through the book’s life cycle, from forecasting sales to ensuring it is delivered to customers on time.