Senior Rights Manager

Job Title:
Senior Rights Manager

Department:
Rights, Macmillan Children’s Books

Contract:

Full time, permanent

We are looking for an experienced, collaborative and commercially minded Senior Rights Manager to join our award-winning rights team. In this role, you will help grow our global revenue by managing the sale of translation and co‑edition rights across our famous children’s book lists. You will play a key role in building global fiction rights sales, as well as helping members of the team to build their professional skills and reach their sales potential.

Macmillan Children’s Books (MCB) is one of the UK’s leading children’s publishers. We have been creating bestselling brands, children’s books and poetry for all ages for over 150 years. We are the original publisher of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Today, our list includes many globally successful and award‑winning authors and illustrators, such as Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler, Marcus Rashford, Tomi Adeyemi and Liz Pichon.

As Senior Rights Manager, you will be the main point of contact for our fiction and non‑Fiction titles across all of our children’s lists. You will take responsibility for selling co‑editions and sub‑rights licences in assigned global territories. Reporting to the Head of Rights, you will play a crucial role in managing and supporting direct reports, contributing to the department’s financial goals and ensuring overall team success.

• Lead assigned lists: Act as the main contact for your designated lists. You will work closely with editorial, production and the Rights Director to set budgets and plan long‑term sales growth.

• Manage international sales: Grow co‑edition and sub‑rights sales in your assigned territories by building strong partnerships with international publishers, travelling for sales trips and representing the company at international book fairs.

• Evaluate manuscripts: Review the commercial potential of manuscripts before we acquire them, providing estimated sales figures to help the team make informed business decisions.

• Negotiate and draft contracts: Negotiate profitable contract terms to ensure good sales margins, and draft accurate legal agreements that protect our intellectual property.

• Track financial performance: Monitor income and financial progress against budgets for your territories, and share regular updates on sales with senior management.

• Coordinate co‑editions: Work closely with production teams to organise product specifications and printing schedules, ensuring we maximise the size and efficiency of our print runs.

• Line management and team leadership: Act as a direct line manager for assigned team members. You will be responsible for their day‑to‑day guidance, setting their individual goals, and helping them maximise their performance and sales efficiency.

• Children’s publishing experience: Significant, proven experience selling international rights and co‑editions specifically within children’s publishing, including a strong understanding of children’s fiction and non‑fiction markets.

• Line management experience: A proven track record of direct line management within a sales or publishing environment, with experience training, mentoring and developing junior colleagues to reach their commercial potential.

• Commercial and legal skills: Experience reviewing complex publishing agreements and managing intellectual property contracts securely.

• International outlook: A willingness to travel regularly for business and a commitment to actively promoting our children’s fiction titles to international buyers.

• Managing priorities and complexities: Excellent organisational skills with a demonstrated ability to navigate shifting business needs, solve complex problems and successfully balance competing goals across the division.

• Software/tools: Experience working with systems and tools such as MS Office, Google Workspace and Biblio.

• Language skills: Fluency in a second language, with a preference for Italian, German, Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese or Korean.

• Inclusion and representation: A…