Administrative Assistant, Mills & Boon (Harlequin Enterprise)
Posted 1 day ago by HarperCollins Publishers
Negotiable
Undetermined
Hybrid
London, England, United Kingdom
Summary: This role involves providing administrative support to the Harlequin Mills & Boon series imprint and the editorial team in London. The position requires effective communication and organizational skills to manage author interactions, database updates, and editorial tasks. The Administrative Assistant will also coordinate author events and support the editorial team with various administrative duties. A hybrid working model is offered, allowing for a blend of office and remote work.
Key Responsibilities:
- Provide administrative and clerical support as the frontline contact for authors and general queries.
- Fill in template letters, email authors, track responses, and liaise with stakeholders.
- Update author information and manage databases using internal systems.
- Schedule books, complete prelims, create templates, and edit copy for various romance genres.
- Prepare monthly leadership reports and maintain effective logs.
- Support the editorial team with tasks such as Art Fact Sheet alerts and contract proposal forms.
- Track team expenses through the internal approval system.
- Manage unsolicited manuscripts and provide timely responses.
- Book meetings and make travel arrangements as required.
- Organize author events, including invitations, catering, and staffing arrangements.
Key Skills:
- Administrative experience.
- Strong communication, planning, and organizational skills.
- Attention to detail.
- Ability to build trust and collaborate effectively.
- Problem-solving and decision-making skills.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office and other applications.
Salary (Rate): undetermined
City: London
Country: United Kingdom
Working Arrangements: hybrid
IR35 Status: undetermined
Seniority Level: undetermined
Industry: Other
Reporting to the Executive Editor, this position is responsible for providing administrative support for the Harlequin Mills & Boon series imprint and the editorial team in London.
Key Tasks And Responsibilities
- Provide administrative and clerical support by being the frontline contact for the author base, and for general queries and information, including troubleshooting.
- Filling in template letters and emailing authors as well as tracking the responses and liaising with stakeholders
- Using internal systems to update author information and other database management.
- Scheduling books, completing prelims, creating templates, editing copy and admin for Modern/Presents, Romance, Medical and Historical Romance as required.
- Prepares monthly leadership report; maintains effective logs as needed.
- Provides support for the editorial team, including such tasks as: monthly Art Fact Sheet alerts for authors; assisting with deflags and AAs, contract proposal forms, as needed; responding to author queries, helping prepare presentation materials.
- Track expenses for the team members through the internal approval system.
- Manages and assigns unsolicited manuscripts through our Submittable system, reading slush and giving timely responses.
- Booking meetings; proactively booking rooms for group meetings, making travel arrangements as required.
- Organising all aspects of author events including invitation preparation, catering, decoration and staffing arrangements
Skills and Experience Required
- Administrative experience
- Strong communication, planning and organizational skills as well as attention to detail
- Capacity to build trust/teamwork/collaboration and customer orientation
- Problem-solving, decision-making and prioritization skills
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office and other apps and systems
Benefits
- 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 HeadSpace, 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 minority colleagues), HarperParents, Menopause at Work, Pride at HC, Social Mobility Network and Neurodiversity at Work
- Unlimited training on our Learning and Development portal, management courses (up to MA level) and mentoring programmes
- Virtual GP and eyecare vouchers
- Gym membership discount
- Onsite physiotherapy (London only)
- Charitable donation matching and 2 volunteering days
- We're a certified Carbon Neutral company
- Free e-books and audiobooks, digital newspaper subscriptions and discounts on books
- Subsidised canteen and retail discounts
- Onsite prayer room
At HarperCollins, we value authenticity and integrity in our recruitment process. To ensure a fair and accurate evaluation of all applications, we ask that all responses to assessment questions reflect your own thoughts, experiences, and capabilities. This allows us to fairly assess your knowledge, skills, and experience to determine how they align with the role. We value diverse perspectives and genuine contributions, even if answers are not perfect. The use of AI tools or external assistance to generate responses is discouraged unless explicitly permitted for specific tasks.
If you wish to discuss anything regarding this position and/or your application to this role, please reach out directly to tarni.crossley-lees@harpercollins.co.uk with subject heading ‘Vacancy Query’ plus the job title and we will aim to get back to you within 5 working days. Please note, if you are interested in the role you would need to submit your application via Applied. We do not accept email applications.
The Book Trade Charity offers financial support to people looking to enter the book trade but who may struggle to afford the costs of attending interviews and undertaking internships or entry level positions. For more information visit https://www.btbs.org/