Commissioning editor, HarperMagpie & HarperVoyager; FTC

Closing date for applications:
Tuesday 17th February 2026 11:55pm

Salary: £35,500 - £40,000

Location:
London

A fantastic next step for an editor ready to commission award-winning Science Fiction and Fantasy, combining editorial vision with sharp market awareness.

With a history stretching back over 200 years, Harper Collins is the second largest consumer book publisher in the world. Here at Harper Collins UK, we publish around 1,500 books a year for readers of all ages and interests.

We have an exciting opportunity for a Commissioning Editor at Harper Voyager & Harper Magpie. This is a great opportunity for an editor with some commissioning experience to step up and commission onto award-winning and bestselling Science Fiction and Fantasy imprints. The successful candidate will be commercially savvy, having an extensive knowledge of the market and a passion for the bestselling books that we publish.

The role will also involve supporting on one or more of our big brand authors, working with the Publisher to manage brand publishing, internal team comms and brand strategies. This will also include some desk editing.

• Acquiring titles in line with Harper Voyager & Harper Magpie’s acquisition strategy
• Fantastic publishing vision: taking full ownership of every title you work on, devising a launch strategy and developing the publishing plan with internal stakeholders, then communicating it consistently to authors and agents
• Excellent author care: supporting authors from acquisition to publication with excellent communication, sales data, industry and market context and editorial support
• Structural and line-edits, discussing new ideas and developing projects with your authors
• Launching and presenting titles at International, sales and marketing meetings.
• Negotiating deals with agents for the best possible outcome, in line with Harper Collins best practice and guidelines, preparing deal memos and progressing contracts for all acquisitions.
• Putting books through production, liaising with the production team in line with critical path.
• Briefing market-informed jackets and liaising with designers; writing market-informed copy and ensuring covers meet all deadlines for retailer sell-in.
• Ownership of metadata and AI's, ensuring these fit with emerging trends in the market.
• Building strong and dynamic relationships with agents, ensuring GF sees the best talent and best debuts in this area as well as being a first port of call for existing authors looking to move
• Building great relationships with internal colleagues across the business
• Attending launches, industry events and festivals.

• Previous experience of working on a commercially focused, popular Science fiction and Fantasy list or on SFF within a non-genre list
• Experience of owning, devising and implementing publishing strategy
• Experience working at an editor level or above
• Sound market knowledge of popular fiction, and especially crime, thriller and historical authors and trends
• Full knowledge of desk editing and publishing processes
• Experience of working directly with authors and agents

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; a keen eye for detail
• Digital skills -- able to drive digital and audio initiatives and innovation
• Ability to own and drive own workload
• Ability to work in a very fast-paced environment across multiple titles with multiple stakeholders
• Quick-thinking and extremely organised
• Creative
• Ability to work individually and collaboratively as part of a cross-divisional team
• Strong awareness of market trends
• Computer skills:
  Word, Excel, Power Point

• Hybrid working model (3 days in the office)
• 28 days holiday plus bank holidays (option to buy and sell holiday days)
• Enhanced pay for maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave
• Private healthcare cover and life assurance
• Summer Hours
• Free access to Head Space, employee assistance programme (24 hour helpline), mental health first aiders, and a wellbeing portal
• Season ticket loans (from day 1 for entry level) and cycle to work scheme
• Relocation Rent Support Loan
• Employee networks: HC All In (open forum), Elevate (for ethnic…