Editor, Avon

Location Hybrid · London, UK 3+ days office based

Seniority Mid-level

• Closing: 12:55am, 13th Apr 2025 BST

Perks and benefits

Work from home option

Wellness programs

Employee Assistance Programme

Enhanced maternity and paternity leave

Mentoring/coaching

Cycle to work scheme

Job Description

Avon is a division of HarperCollins, one of the UK’s most prolific, diverse and innovative multi-platform publishers. Specialising in commercial, high-volume fiction, Avon is a past winner of Imprint of the Year at the British Book Awards, and publishes a wide range of titles across crime, women’s fiction, historical and saga, for a predominantly female readership. Selling through both the high street and the supermarkets, Avon is a leader in trend-setting commercial fiction, with million-copy bestsellers such as C.L. Taylor, Helen Fields and Sue Moorcroft to its name.

As Editor, you will provide some editorial and desk editing support across the team as well as establishing and acquiring your own list. You will have ownership of your own stable of authors, seeing them through from acquisition to publication for both physical and digital editions. You will work on a range of titles across different genres, encompassing both women’s fiction and crime and thriller, creating strategies in conjunction with key team members to launch your books to the top of the charts. This role has a great amount of potential for growth, and the new Editor will be an important member of our small and dynamic team. It will suit digitally-savvy candidates who have both initiative and energy, and who are excited to think creatively about how we publish our books.

It is essential that you have a strong awareness of market dynamics, with a broad and keen interest in commercial fiction across a range of genres, particularly women’s fiction and crime. You should be able to prove that you keep abreast of current publishing trends, as well as displaying intuition about future trend developments. You will have been working as an Assistant Editor or Editor already, and will be able to demonstrate experience of creative and editorial input, plus an eye for detail and quality. You will be a confident and articulate communicator, highly organised, able to multi-task and have a strong interest in social media and digital developments within the industry.

Key tasks and accountabilities:

Editorial:

1. Ownership of and main point of contact for your stable of authors as agreed with the Publisher, working across both women’s fiction and crime/thriller.
2. Work on structural and line edits of own authors.
3. Desk editing own books, working closely with the production team and pub ops director to keep them in line with critical path.
4. Understanding and wider reading of UK commercial women’s fiction and crime/thriller market.
5. Briefing jackets and liaising with designers.
6. Copywriting and checking sales/marketing material.
7. Build and foster relationships with agents.
8. Creating vision documents for new acquisitions.
9. Ownership of metadata/AIs for individual authors.
10. Writing cover/catalogue/Bookseller copy as required.
11. Proofreading jacket copy, catalogue copy and other literature.
12. Reading, reporting, circulating and rejection of submissions.
13. To produce timely launch documents in consultation with the Publisher.
14. Supporting the team on a small number of titles.
15. Presenting titles at meetings.

Digital:

1. Working to ensure best in class metadata.
2. Working in conjunction with the Marketing Manager to create innovative digital campaigns.
3. Liaising with in-house digital teams.
4. Preparing and presenting titles at quarterly digital meetings.
5. Create content for customer presentations.
6. Ensure that Sales, International Sales, Audio, Digital Sales and Rights teams have all the advance sales information required.
7. Work closely with Avon’s publicists.
8. Attend launches and festivals as required.

General:

1. Negotiate deals for new acquisitions with agents.
2. Liaise with picture research team.
3. Liaise with rights team over cover rights clearance.
4. Liaise with the contracts team as necessary.

Skills Required:

1. Experience of working within the publishing industry.
2. Demonstrated sound market knowledge of commercial fiction.
3. Experience of desk editing processes.
4. Full knowledge of publishing processes.
5. Experience of working directly with authors.
6. Experience of design programmes such as Photoshop, InDesign or Canva.
7. Quick reader.
8. In tune with digital innovations within the industry.
9. Strong awareness of market trends.

At HarperCollins, we value authenticity and integrity in our recruitment process. To ensure a fair and accurate evaluation of all applications, we ask that all responses to assessment questions reflect your own thoughts, experiences, and capabilities. This allows us to fairly assess your knowledge, skills, and experience to determine how they align with the role.

If you wish to discuss anything regarding this position and/or your application to this role, please reach out directly to stephanie.jemmett@harpercollins.co.uk with subject heading ‘Vacancy Query’ plus the job title and we will aim to get back to you within 5 working days.

Please note, if you are interested in the role you would need to submit your application via Applied. We do not accept email applications.