Publicity Assistant, Penguin Michael Joseph

Do you enjoy talking about the best new books with everyone you know? Are you organised, proactive and thrive in busy, fast paced environments? This could be the role for you. We are looking for a Publicity Assistant to join our team at Penguin Michael Joseph. 

About Penguin Michael Joseph 

You will work as part of a collaborative and supportive team, curious and open to new and innovative ideas. Penguin Michael Joseph publishes some of the world’s most popular authors to commercial and bestselling success across both fiction and non-fiction and across a wide range of genres including crime and thriller, women’s fiction, book club, fantasy and romance. This role offers the opportunity to work across a range of authors. Our fiction authors include: Jojo Moyes, Liane Moriarty, Claire Douglas, SenLinYu, Carley Fortune, Holly Jackson and Alex Michaelides. Our non-fiction authors include Jamie Oliver, Stephen Fry, Dr Julie Smith and Judi Dench.  

The role 

Key responsibilities: 

• Providing general administrative support to the Publicity team to facilitate the smooth running of the department.  

• Keeping on top of department processes, organising meetings and taking minutes. 

• Producing and sending out press releases, coding invoices and processing expenses, sending out books.  

• Acting as a point of contact for the press, regularly communicating with journalists and managing author enquiries.  

• Providing support to publicists with their book launches, including accompanying authors to interviews and events, organising schedules, travel and accommodation 

• This role may involve out of hours work on weekends and evenings in order to attend events and festivals. 

What you’ll bring 

Essential criteria: 

• Strong personal organisation and time management skills with excellent attention to detail. 

• Proactive and reactive, with the ability to multitask and handle competing priorities. 

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, able to communicate effectively to a wide range of people on email, phone and in person. 

• Solutions focused and positive mindset with great initiative. 

• Flexible and helpful, a strong team player. 

• Able to work independently, and with the determination to achieve your objectives. 

• A self-starter, with the resilience to keep things moving when challenges arise. 

• The ability to think creatively and try new ways of working. 

Application instructions 

Please apply with your CV and cover letter outlining why you are the right candidate for the role by 11:59pm on Friday 2nd October 2026. 

As part of your cover letter, please use 300 words to tell us about a recent book campaign that has caught your eye, and why? 

Please ensure you include a cover letter, as it is a crucial part of our assessment process. The cover letter offers an opportunity to show how your experience and interests align with the role requirements. Typically, we expect the cover letter to be no more than one or two pages in length.  

Please note we are looking for someone to join the team as soon as possible, but we are also happy to accommodate a reasonable notice period for the right candidate. 

We anticipate a two-stage interview process which will include a virtual first-stage interview and in-person second stage interview. We are happy to discuss this further with you throughout the recruitment process. 

Salary 

£29,000 plus bonus and benefits. 

AI 

Here at Penguin, we believe in the power of authenticity and human creativity. When you apply for a position, we want to encourage you to showcase your unique voice. Throughout our recruitment process, please share your own thoughts, experiences, and skills. This helps us get a true sense of who you are and what you might bring to our team. 
 
We celebrate creativity and diverse perspectives, so please be yourself! While we recognise AI tools can be helpful, we recommend using them thoughtfully to ensure your responses reflect you. 

Disability Confident 

As a Disability Confident Committed organisation, we offer interviews to candidates with a disability who meet the essential criteria for the role, and opt-in on their application form. The essential criteria for this role are listed as part of the ‘What you’ll bring’ section. There may be times when the volume of applications means we cannot take all eligible candidates to interview.  

We encourage you to tell us about any reasonable adjustments you may need by emailing [email protected]. Remember, you only need to share what you are comfortable with, for us to support your request. 

Hybrid working 

While our offices across the UK are places to connect, collaborate and celebrate with colleagues, we recognise that flexibility around where you work is just as important. For this role we expect that you will work from our offices on four days per week, to include Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  

Disclosure requirements pertaining to the collection of your personal data:

Responsible for processing the information provided in your application is the company specified in the job advertisement, with its registered office as indicated. The company processes your data for the purpose of establishing an employment relationship on the basis of Art. 6 (1) b GDPR / Section 26 (1) sentence 1 BDSG.

The retention period for your data is determined by the statutory time limits applicable in the respective country, beginning upon completion of the recruitment process. You can find these here.

You can contact the company’s Data Protection Officer at the above-mentioned postal address. 

Further information on data protection and your rights can be found here.
 

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