About Hachette UK
Hachette UK is a creative powerhouse and the UK's second largest book publishing group. Our mission is to make it easy for everyone to discover new worlds of ideas, learning, entertainment and opportunity.
We're made up of 12 autonomous publishing divisions and over 60 imprints with a rich and diverse history and an incredible range of authors. We're also the market leader in e-books and publish a range of bestsellers in audio format, the fastest growing part of our business.
Hachette UK is part of Hachette Livre, the world's third largest trade and educational publisher. As well as our headquarters in Carmelite House, London, and our state-of-the-art book distribution centre in Didcot, Oxfordshire, we have recently opened five new offices in Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield, Newcastle, and Edinburgh. The UK region also includes offices in Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, the Caribbean, and Ireland.
It's an exciting time to join our business because the publishing market continues to grow and thrive. The UK remains the largest exporter of physical books in the world and book adaptations for film and TV are the foundation of the UK's creative industries.
About Orion
At Orion, we believe every story matters. Open, agile, passionate and innovative, our mission is to bring the best publishing to the greatest variety of people. Ambitious to continually raise the bar, we believe good stories can come from anywhere and so encourage and value contributions from everybody here.
Orion 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.
About Hachette Children's Groups
Hachette Children's Group of the UK's largest children's publishers, our mission is to make it easy for children and young people everywhere to access books and see themselves reflected. We aim to maximise our readers' life chances by inspiring a lifelong love of reading, publishing books for every stage of their journey to adulthood from Enid Blyton to Alice Oseman's Heartstopper.
Hachette Children's Group 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.
What you'll be doing
This is an entry-level role reporting to the Manager, Contracts & Business Affairs (Orion and Hachette Children's Group). The successful candidate will work closely with their colleagues in the Orion and Hachette Children's Group contracts team and the wider publishing teams assisting with a number of vital functions:
- Process contract and paperwork requests, updating contracts log and ensuring all queries are allocated within the team.
- Manage reversion requests, providing information and guidance to editors, draft reversion letters and update Biblio and other databases.
- Hand permissions requests in a timely manner.
- Provide departmental administrative support in relation to the contracts process as required, e.g. due to staff absence.
- Draft and/or check contractual paperwork, under supervision and guidance of line manager.
- Ensure / assist Editorial Operations Executive so that finalised contracts are processed, including arranging for signature and updating Biblio publishing database.
The above list is not exclusive or exhaustive and the job holder may be required to undertake such other duties as may reasonably be required.
Who we are looking for
We are looking for someone with:
- Meticulous eye for detail
- Computer literacy - good skills in Word, Excel, PowerPoint
- Knowledge of, or aptitude for, relevant applications/systems, e.g. Biblio.
- Excellent organisation and administrative skills
- Excellent standard of written and spoken English
- Ability to communicate and build positive working relationship with contacts at all levels
- Ability to work collaboratively as part of a team
- Adaptability
- Interest in the publishing industry
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!
The role will be based at our London office, Carmelite House, with a blend of in-office (3 days) and homeworking (2 days) per week.
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.
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 www.booktradeentrysupport.org