Head of fiction publicity (12 month FTC)

Closing date: 14th October 2024

Salary: £45,000+ dependent on experience and location (+bonus +benefits)

Craft bold campaigns and drive sales for this award-winning publisher!

Quercus is a dynamic, award-winning publisher. Known as a hit-maker that regularly finds books that surprise and delight readers, we are international in our outlook and publish an exciting and diverse range of authors. From established bestsellers to new voices, what draws our publishing together is the magic 'quirk' in Quercus: independence, flair, warmth and creativity.

Quercus 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

• All publicity activities on their allocation from acquisitions, through to planning, implementation, publication and beyond. This role will cover a wide variety of titles but will have particular responsibility across Fiction and Arcadia, our international Science Fiction and Fantasy list.
• Producing high profile campaigns that directly influence sales and awareness of our list.
• Working collaboratively alongside other publicists on joint campaigns, tours and planning.
• Liaising with all departments, working especially closely with their marketing counterpart on campaigns.
• Maintaining excellent media contacts through media meetings, event outreach and targeted pitching.
• Working closely with authors by being champion for their work, providing outstanding author care and maintaining excellent relationships with agents and key external stakeholders.
• Managing a title budget diligently and effectively.
• Growing our brand authors and their titles.
• Contributing towards imprint strategy and wider conversations relating to the list which may include acquisitions feedback, brand strategy and pitch documents and meetings.
• Liaising with our talented international teams on global campaigns.
• Creating and accompanying on author tours that both maintain excellent existing relationships with bookshops and cultural institutions as well as reaching new audiences and bringing our books to fresh readerships.
• Maintaining engagement with key online communities.
• Managing a Press Officer within the Publicity team, depending on prior management experience. This can be discussed during the recruitment process.

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 seeking an experienced, passionate and creative senior publicist to join the award-winning Quercus Publicity Team and lead the campaigns on the impressive Quercus Fiction list. This role covers all genres, but we are especially keen to work with applicants who have a focus on fiction and have previously worked on sales-driving campaigns for brand authors, commercial titles and genre publishing. We'd love to hear from candidates who enjoy working collaboratively and calmly in a busy communications team and understand how to devise strategy, develop brand campaigns and deliver high-profile publicity events and tours.

As Head of Fiction, you will be the point person on crucial imprint activity from acquisitions through to imprint strategy and be responsible for producing outstanding campaign work across some of the list's key titles on all media platforms. This role comes with line management responsibility, depending on prior management experience.

What we offer

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).
• 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.