Assistant Editor, Pre-school & Novelty Children's Books

About the Children Division 

Simon & Schuster Children’s Books is a high performing, dynamic division of a fast-growing and ambitious publisher, and the British Book Awards Children’s Publisher of the Year 2023. The colour list is industry-leading and internationally renowned. Much-loved authors and illustrators include Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet (Barry the Fish with Fingers, Supertato), Benji Davies (The Storm Whale series), Beach (The Blazing Bottom series), Smriti Halls and Steve Small (I’m Sticking with You) and Claire Freedman and Ben Cort (the Aliens Love Underpants series). As we seek further sustainable and profitable growth, and build on our culture of excitement and ambition, we are growing our team across several departments. 

The Job Profile

A Pre-school & Novelty creative team is being established at Simon & Schuster Children’s Books as part of our next phase of expansion. The newly created role of Assistant Editor will play a key role in supporting the development and growth of the Pre-school & Novelty list as well as providing some support to the award-winning Picture Books team. This is an exciting role for someone who wants to work in a creative, collaborative and fast-moving environment.

The Job Role

Reporting to the Pre-school & Novelty Editorial Director, the Assistant Editor has responsibility for supporting the administration and project management (including schedule tracking, title data management, writing blurbs and catalogue copy, creating deal memos), creative development (including writing text to series style) and editing (including providing feedback on illustrations, briefing covers, checking layouts, line-editing, proofreading and copyediting) of innovative, commercial and accessible pre-school, novelty and selected picture book titles.

Proactively working towards the shared vision of the division by bringing high-quality publishing to market on time and to budget. Coordinating with the production and design departments to ensure that assigned projects are delivered within deadlines, and liaising with marketing, PR and sales teams on plans, positioning and championing the list in and out of house. 

The Candidate Profile

Ideally, you will have demonstrable experience of excelling in an Editorial Assistant role in colour book publishing. You believe in the life-changing potential of reading for pleasure and have a special passion for pre-school, novelty and picture books that will encourage a life-long love of books.

We are a small team, so you will be a driven team-player who is happy to pitch in across all areas. This is a hands-on role, so you must have outstanding administrative and multi-tasking skills, a terrific eye for detail, creative flair, be enthusiastic about sharing and developing ideas and feel comfortable liaising with various internal departments including Design, Sales, Rights, Marketing, PR and Production, as well as freelancers and talent. You will be calm under pressure and thrive within a fast-paced environment. You will have excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal, with a strong grasp of grammar and strong proofreading skills.

Apply 

Please apply by attaching your CV and cover letter.