Editor, Avon

News Corp; London Borough of Southwark; Hybrid; GBP 34,000 - 36,000; Full time

Job summary

HarperCollins Avon is seeking an Editor to manage a stable of romance and women’s fiction authors, guiding titles from acquisition to publication for print and digital editions.

You will work with the Editorial Director, developing market-driven strategies, liaising with designers and agents, and driving book campaigns to the top of the charts.

The role is based in London with a hybrid policy requiring three days in the office, offering growth within a dynamic publishing team.

Qualifications

• Experience in publishing at Assistant Editor or Editor level.
• Experience desk editing and editorial workflow.
• Strong market knowledge of commercial fiction, especially romance.
• Experience working directly with authors.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• Ability to take initiative and solve problems.

Responsibilities

• Own a stable of authors from acquisition to publication for print and digital editions.
• Perform structural and line edits for own authors.
• Desk edit publisher's list and titles for the editorial director.
• Collaborate with production and pub ops to meet critical path.
• Develop market-focused publishing strategies for UK and international markets.
• Brief jackets and liaise with designers to finalize covers.
• Copywrite and check sales/marketing materials.
• Build relationships with agents to acquire new titles.
• Create acquisition vision documents and present at meetings.
• Produce launch documents with Editorial Director, KAM and Marketing Manager.
• Manage metadata for authors aligned with trends.
• Coordinate with in-house digital teams for promotions and selections.

Skills

Publishing industry experience

Desk editing

Market knowledge: romance & sci-fi?

Author relations

Communication

Initiative & problem solving

Tools

Word

Excel

PowerPoint

Job description

Editor, Avon

Application Deadline: 19 November 2026

Department: Editorial

Employment Type: Permanent

Location: London

Compensation: £33,500 - £36,000 / year

Description

As Editor, you will provide editorial and desk editing support, managing all titles for the publisher, and some for the editorial director, 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. The Avon list is broadly divided into halves: our heartland list, and our trend-led list, which includes contemporary romance across subgenres, paranormal and romantasy, horror, and more. You will work on a range of books with a focus on trend-led titles, especially romance and women’s fiction, creating strategies in conjunction with key team members to launch your books to the top of the charts. This is a role with 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 strong experience desk editing.

It is essential that you have a strong awareness of market dynamics, particularly the digital market, with a broad and keen interest in commercial fiction, especially romance and ‘trend-led’ genres. 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, be able to multi-task and have a strong and active interest in social media and developments across the trad and self-published areas of the industry. You will be creative and forward-thinking, bringing with you a can-do attitude and a desire to drive your books and authors to the top of the charts. You will have experience of desk editing and the overall publishing process, and a desire for continuous learning as your role expands. This role will suit candidates who are used to working in fast-paced and exciting environments, who can think on their feet, and are happy taking initiative where necessary.

Key Responsibilities

Editorial

• Ownership of and main point of contact for own stable of authors as agreed with the Publisher, working across romance, women’s fiction, and some crime titles, seeing them through from acquisition to publication for both physical and digital editions.
• Work on structural and line edits of own authors.
• Desk editing the publisher’s list of titles, and a number of titles for the editorial director.
• Desk editing own books, working closely with the production team and pub ops team to keep them in line with critical path.
• Understanding and wider reading of UK and international commercial romance and women’s fiction markets, ensuring strong market knowledge and market-focused publishing strategies.
• Briefing jackets and liaising with designers, seeing covers through from start to finish.
• Copywriting and checking sales/marketing material, e.g. catalogues, sales presenters etc.
• Build and foster relationships with agents, with a view to bringing in the best new talent and commissioning new titles for the Avon list.
• Creating vision documents for new acquisitions, and presenting these at acquisition meetings.
• To produce timely launch documents in consultation with the Editorial Director, Key Account Manager and Marketing Manager.
• Ownership of metadata/AIs for individual authors, ensuring this fits with emerging trends in the market, and is completed in line with critical path.
• Liaising with in-house digital teams to ensure understanding of digital promotions, and securing selections for books on the list

General

• Negotiate deals for new acquisitions with agents, with support from the Publisher and Contracts team as necessary.
• Ensure a strong awareness of what physical retailers are looking for.
• Create content for customer presentations and other presentations where necessary.
• Ensure that Sales, International Sales, Audio, Digital Sales and Rights teams have all the advance sales information that they require for own titles.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• Experience of working within the publishing industry (at Assistant Editor level or Editor level or equivalent)
• Experience of desk editing processes
• Be able to demonstrate sound market knowledge of and passion for commercial ‘trend-led’ fiction
• Experience of working directly with authors
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Takes initiative
• A problem solver
• Quick-thinking
• Creative
• Extremely organised
• A keen eye for detail
• Interpersonal and diplomacy skills
• Technically competent, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint
• Passionate, energetic and enthusiastic
• Enjoys a challenge

Additional Information

HarperCollins operates a hybrid working policy where employees are expected to work from our London office three days per week.