Publishing Manager, Macmillan Children's Books

Publishing Manager, Macmillan Children's Books

Pan Macmillan UK is one of the largest general book publishers in the UK, with imprints including Macmillan, Mantle, Pan, Picador, Boxtree, Sidgwick & Jackson, Bello, Tor, Kingfisher, Macmillan Children's Books, Two Hoots, Bluebird, Campbell Books, Macmillan New Writing and Macmillan Digital Audio. Pan Macmillan is part of Macmillan Publishers International Limited.

London

Project Management

Professionals

We're looking for an exceptionally organised and detail-oriented Publishing Manager who is passionate about working on children's colour books. This is an important and varied role for an experienced candidate with a solid understanding of the editorial process and a passion for supporting pre-press teams to create books of the highest quality on time and within budget for one of the most prestigious Children's publishers.

Job Description

Your team:
You will join the group Managing Editorial department but work most closely with the colour publishing teams in Macmillan Children's Books to bring our Children's publishing programme to life, championing efficiency and driving progress of the critical path.

Your role:
Working with our exceptional author brands such as Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler, Rod Campbell and Camilla Reid, as well as our classics & licence publishing and our critically acclaimed and commercially successful picture book lists, you will become a key member of the senior team with a focus on delivering the very best colour publishing.

Your Profile

Your key responsibilities:

Team & Project Leadership: You'll be the go-to expert for how we publish our children's colour books. You'll lead projects, manage schedules and work with each of the teams to help identify priorities and balance workload. A key part of your role will be helping to train new team members and working with a team of publishing assistants to support the department.

Managing Book Schedules: You will be responsible for our publishing schedule, making sure books are released on time. This involves leading regular progress meetings with editorial, production and design teams, and keeping a close watch on high-priority titles to ensure they publish smoothly. You'll be responsible for analysing and communicating critical path KPIs

Systems & Training: You'll take charge of our key publishing systems. This includes ensuring our main database (Biblio) is accurate, using our reporting tool (Tableau) to track progress and training others across the business in how to use them. You will also manage and update our company style guides.

Improving Our Processes: You will help us work smarter. This means managing the budget and creation of materials for our sales team, improving our reporting, simplifying the process for audiobooks, and working with other departments to make our publishing more efficient.

Essential experience, abilities and knowledge you'll need to succeed:
The role will suit someone with experience of complex project management who can work flexibly and thrive in a fast-paced environment.

We're looking for someone who is an excellent problem solver and a confident communicator with the ability to build strong relationships with teams across the business and influence at all levels. We'd love it if you also had experience of suggesting and delivering improvements to workflow and processes.

The ideal candidate will have the following skills and knowledge:

An excellent knowledge of the colour editorial and design process from start to finish

Substantial experience in a similar project-management role

An excellent track record of managing the coordination of text and images through the pre-press processes, and the ability to draw up, manage and re-negotiate schedules in line with critical path

Be self-motivated and highly flexible - happy to move between projects as priorities dictate and manage multiple projects effectively

A sound knowledge of the relevant software in order to manage multiple complex projects simultaneously.

Desirable skills we'd love you to have:

Experience of working in children's or colour publishing

Some Desk Editorial skills e.g. copy-editing and proof reading, and an excellent understanding of the English language

Experience of training and mentoring, and the ability to motivate others

Familiarity with Google for Work (Gmail/Google applications)

Experience of working with Biblio and Tableau would be an advantage.

Perspectives

What you'll get in return:
In return we can offer you a range of great projects, a supportive and collaborative working environment as well as a competitive salary and benefits package.

Salary starting from: £42,000

Closing date: 13 July 2025

Some of the benefits we offer:

28 days' annual leave increasing with years of service + bank holidays

Discounted private medical insurance

Enhanced family pay and leave

Flexible working hours and summer hours (early finish on a Friday during summer months)

2 Volunteer Days per year

75% off all Pan Macmillan books and regular staff book sales (highly reduced rates)

Season ticket loan/advance

Cycle to work scheme

Discounts on shopping and gym memberships; Christmas club savings

Daily free breakfast and monthly company lunch

Additional

This is a full time, permanent role, and will be based in our offices in Farringdon, London, with some flexibility to work from home each week.

All applicants must be able to demonstrate the right to live and work in the UK in order to be considered for this role.

At Pan Macmillan, we are highly committed to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at every level of our organisation. We welcome applications from all individuals, including any age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. Our efforts to promote DEI are ongoing, and we continually strive to learn and improve our policies and practices. You can read our full Diversity & Inclusion Pledge here:

We want to ensure that all candidates are supported throughout the recruitment process, if you have any reasonable adjustments or accessibility requirements please contact Kayelle Danyluk (Head of Talent Acquisition) at

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