Publishing Operations Assistant (Canongate Books

Publishing Operations Assistant (Canongate Books)

Posted on: 31st July, 2026.
Closing date: 14th August, 2026

Canongate Books is one of the UK’s leading independent publishers: B Corp certified and shortlisted for both Publisher of the Year and Independent Publisher of the Year at this year’s British Book Awards.

Canongate Books are looking for a highly organised and detail-oriented Publishing Operations Assistant to join their team. Reporting to the Head of Editorial Management, the successful candidate will play a key supporting role in the smooth running of the publishing operations processes.

This role would suit someone proactive and detail-oriented who enjoys variety and takes pride in keeping things accurate and on track. You’ll be involved in many areas of publishing operations, from preparing books for press and clearing permissions, to maintaining Canongate’s bibliographic data and handling licensing administration. If you’re comfortable managing multiple tasks and working collaboratively, they’d love to hear from you.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Preparing books for publication, including checking corrections, collating and typing queries and liaising with authors on outstanding and reprint corrections.
• Supporting permissions work, including assisting with clearing text and image permissions.
• Maintaining accurate Biblio records and data
• Raising purchase orders in Sage and Biblio to enable invoice payment.
• Proofreading and checking proofs, jackets, marketing materials and rights guides as required.
• Typesetting bound proofs as and when required.
• Licensing jacket artwork to offsetting publishers, raising SOs and logging deals on Biblio.
• Handling incoming permissions requests via PLS and email.
• Providing ad hoc administrative support across publishing operations.

Location: This full-time role is based in Canongate’s Edinburgh office with the option for hybrid working once training is complete.