Commissioning editor

Hachette UK

Closing date for applications: 25th October 2024

Salary: £32,000+ dependent on experience and location (+bonus +benefits)

If you are a creative, proactive and commercially savvy editor then this job is for you. Explore an exciting opportunity to join new commercial fiction imprint Mountain Leopard Press.

Headline has spent over three decades creating bestsellers and our passion for the commercial means we are home to some of the UK’s biggest-selling authors and continue to invest in new talent with stellar sales potential.

Headline publishes some of the biggest names in fiction, including Martina Cole, Neil Gaiman, Maggie O’Farrell, Karen Rose, Jill Mansell, Victoria Hislop, Simon Scarrow, Dorothy Koomson and Deborah Harkness, and is proud to publish the books that immerse, entertain, and grip their readers. Over the last couple of years we have launched an array of exciting new voices that include Bobby Palmer, Bolu Babalola, Erin Sterling, Alex Hay and Freya Berry.

We have an exciting opportunity for an energetic commissioning editor to join the newly launched Mountain Leopard Press imprint. Reporting to the Editorial Director, the successful candidate will commission and publish commercial fiction titles across all genres, including crime & thriller, book club, general fiction, romcom, historical and more, with a focus on creating digital bestsellers in both the UK and US. You will take ownership of your titles, seeing them through from acquisition to publication and beyond, while delivering best-in-class author care. You will manage your titles’ desk editing and metadata and you will contribute to shared resources for the imprint as needed.

Who we are looking for

• You will be a key member of the Mountain Leopard Press team, which is in an exciting moment of growth, so we’re keen to see your excitement for innovation and thinking outside the box to deliver sales success
• Some commissioning experience is desirable, but most important is your ability to demonstrate market awareness, strategic thinking and keen commercial taste
• The successful candidate will confidently build internal and external relationships and have a desire to represent the imprint at industry events, where appropriate
• We are looking for someone who can demonstrate where an idea of theirs has directly led to a successful publication, whether that’s the book idea itself, a cover/title change or a marketing idea that helped its sales trajectory.

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)
• 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!

This role can be based at our London or Sheffield office, 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

Please include in your application that you found this role through Creative Access.