Henry Holt & Company is looking for an associate editor or editor to acquire a variety of fiction and potentially a select number of non-fiction titles. Key responsibilities for this role are bringing in additional titles, overseeing the transmittal and production processes, working closely with our publicity and marketing departments to shepherd the titles to publication, and maintaining relationships with authors and agents across the industry.What you'll do:
- Build and develop relationships with literary agents and subsidiary rights directors who are selling books; read manuscripts and meet with prospective authors to discuss editorial and publishing vision
- Present books for potential acquisition to the editorial board, along with information about competitive or comparable titles, projected sales figures based on information about previous/other books by a given author or in a given category, and create a profit/loss statement for the board to evaluate
- Directly negotiate major terms for potential acquisitions (including advance, delivery dates, payout, territories, subsidiary rights, and option language)
- Develop a productive and profitable list of titles, with responsibility for about 5-7 titles per year
- Read and evaluate submissions for colleagues; assist editorial director for fiction with first reads on select submissions and editorial feedback on select acquired books; oversee a small number of backlist reissues or reprints
- Write copy for launch meeting, catalog presentation, audio presentation, and book flaps that effectively positions the book and author for the sales, marketing, and publicity teams as well as consumers.
- Present to the sales department a list of books at launch meetings three times each year
- Meet with the art department and the publishers about ideas, directions, and comparable titles to help guide the process of creating a jacket; communicate jacket ideas and directions to author and agent and negotiate issues between author/agent and art/publisher.
- Solicit advance quotes from other writers, experts, booksellers, and influential people on behalf of books, to help establish quality or enhance sales potential.
What you'll bring:
- Strong communication skills with authors, agents, booksellers, and others in the publishing industry.
- Ability to work with other publishing departments-including sales, marketing, publicity, subsidiary rights, finance, production, and art-and an understanding of what they need to do their jobs in an effective and timely way.
- Strong communication skills for writing launch copy, flap copy, catalog copy, and other writing that will help position and convey the virtues of a given book.
- Strong presentation skills for weekly editorial meetings and seasonal meetings to present titles to sales and marketing
- Ability to scout and evaluate competitive books in the marketplace, and to evaluate information that is relevant to decision-making and profitability.
Ideal Experience:
- 3+ years of experience in editorial, including some acquisition experience
- Experience line editing and project managing fiction and working closely with authors and agents, and an understanding of basic author care
- Basic knowledge of the publishing industry, including awareness and understanding of the assets, timelines, and deliverables needed to publish books successfully
- Bachelor's or Master's Degree in any area or other related field or equivalent work experience.
This role will have an annual salary of $60,000 - $80,000.Macmillan Publishers is the U.S. trade company that is part of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, a large family-owned group of media companies headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. Holtzbrinck Publishing Group's publishing companies include prominent imprints around the world that publish a broad range of award-winning books for children and adults in all categories and formats.U.S. publishers include Celadon Books, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Flatiron Books, Henry Holt & Company, Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, The St. Martin's Publishing Group, and Tor Publishing Group. In the UK, Australia, India, and South Africa, companies in the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group publish under the Pan Macmillan name. The German publishing company, Holtzbrinck Deutsche Buchverlage, includes among its imprints S. Fischer, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Rowohlt, and Droemer Knaur.We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are actively seeking job applicants who reflect a broad representation of differences, including race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, physical ability, neurodiversity, age, family status, economic background and status, geographical background and status, and perspective. We believe that the best companies reflect the incredible diversity in viewpoints, backgrounds, and identities of the world in their staffs, and are committed to inclusive hiring across departments and levels. The successful candidate for this position will be an employee of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.