The Company

Usborne is an independent, family business, creating books which spark curiosity in children of all ages. These range from books for babies such as the bestselling THAT’S NOT MY®… series of touchy-feely books, to YA fiction from acclaimed authors such as Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé and Ravena Guron – with everything from Sticker Dolly Dressing to Philosophy for Beginners in between.

Whilst the company is now a market-leader in children’s publishing and one of the best-known brands in children’s books globally, the company retains a friendly and familial feel. If you want to work somewhere close-knit enough for people to know your name, but which has a first-class reputation around the world, Usborne is the place for you.

The Department

UK Marketing and Publicity department is a close-working and collaborative team of 10 who create innovative and award-winning marketing and publicity campaigns. The publicity team maintain and develop the reputation of the Usborne brand, publicising and promoting Usborne books, series, sub-brands and authors, with the overall aim of increasing sales.

The Role  

You will be responsible for devising and delivering creative, innovative and impactful PR campaigns for Usborne’s high-profile list and multi-award-winning brands, working closely with our in-house and external authors to increase book sales and ensure excellent author care. You will be given a varied and exciting list of campaigns to work on throughout the year with the support and management of the Head of Publicity.

Other key tasks of this role include:

• Devising and delivering all aspects of effective, wide-reaching and well-executed publicity campaigns.

• Organising Usborne presence at festivals, events, and conferences plus launches and book tours and attending these as needed.

• Developing and maintaining lasting relationships with contacts across the media including within the librarian, bookseller and influencer communities.

• Acting as a main point of contact for our in-house and external authors, as well as working closely with our Editorial, and Sales and Marketing teams.

• Providing administrative support to the Publicity team as required. 

Experience

We are looking for a highly organised individual with excellent time management and prioritisation skills who is keen to capitalise on their existing Publicity experience in a role which, with support, will also provide them with significant opportunities to work independently and with autonomy.

We are looking for an individual with at least 1-2 years’ experience in a publicity role with experience of delivering creative and strategic publicity campaigns. Though not essential, having experience of the Publishing industry and a keen interest in children’s books is preferred.

The ideal candidate will also demonstrate:

• Experience of having successfully organised festivals, events, conferences, book launches and book tours or similar events.

• A working knowledge of contacts in all aspects of the media (children’s book contacts a distinct advantage)

• Good understanding of traditional and digital media including, social media e.g. Instagram, TikTok, X.

• Good track record of engaging influencers on publicity campaigns.

• Hands on experience of PR activities in the US would be a distinct advantage

• Excellent written communication skills with a meticulous eye for detail and creative flair.

• Strong interpersonal skills to build relationships with internal stakeholders, external contacts and above all authors.

• Strong organisation and time management skills, and the ability to constantly prioritise in a busy and sometimes pressurised environment

• Understanding of how to use publicity databases and mailing systems.

• A keen interest in children’s books; experience in children’s publishing desired but not essential

• Basic design skills using Adobe Photoshop are desirable but not essential.

The nature of Publicity roles mean you will need the flexibility to travel and work out of normal office hours when necessary and stay away from home on occasion.

Location and Benefits

We offer a 35-hour working week from our Farringdon office in London, where after a successful induction period we offer a hybrid working model of 3 days in the office and 2 days working from home which we feel optimises our opportunities for collaboration and contact with our colleagues.

In addition to our transparent salary grading structure, for this role we also offer a range of benefits including:

• 25 days paid holiday entitlement plus bank holidays.

• Industry-leading Pension Scheme and Life Assurance.

• Employee Assistance Programme through Health Assured and Mental Health First Aiders.

• Healthcare Cashback scheme.

• Virtual GP service.

• Enhanced Family Friendly benefits.

• Paid Volunteer Day.

• Rewards and Discount services and shopping.

• Cycle to Work Scheme.

• 50% discount on Usborne books.

Usborne is dedicated to building a diverse taskforce that reflects the wide range of communities that read our books globally. Decisions are made based on the individual’s skills and experiences and we particularly encourage applications from underrepresented demographics in Publishing.

We are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role and therefore applicants must have the right to live and work in the UK.

Recruitment Process

After an anonymised shortlisting process, we anticipate first interviews taking place in person at our London office w/c 25th November, with second round interviews taking place shortly after.

Please let us know if you require reasonable adjustments at any point during the application and/or recruitment process.

AI notice

We kindly ask that you refrain from using any AI tools for your application.

Whilst AI is undoubtedly a useful tool in some instances, we need to see that you're able to demonstrate your ability to originate ideas and write them in a compelling manner, not just generate them using a tool.