Book Editor

SUMMARY:
Our client in the educational industry has a vacancy for a Book Editor to join their Scholarly Books team. 

The Book Editor will oversee the entire journey of the manuscript from the completion of writing to the online publication. This role will involve project management responsibilities and collaboration with various stakeholders which includes authors, freelancers, and suppliers.

POSITION INFO:
Responsibilities:

• Manage the manuscript's transition from raw form to final publication.
• Establish the production schedule for each task involved in the publication process.
• Coordinate with copy editors, typesetters, proofreaders, and cover designers.
• Prepare manuscripts for approvals for publication.
• Publish books online via the CMS system.
• Provide production specifications to the Print and Distribution team.
• Arrange for manuscript design, copy-editing, typesetting, proofreading, indexing, and electronic conversion in variety of formats.
• Create detailed briefs for each task.
• Maintain an updated list of freelancers and suppliers.
• Manage budgets and purchase orders to freelancers and suppliers.
• Conduct quality control of work carried out and provide feedback to freelancers.
• Ensure all parties are kept on schedule.
• Attend and contribute to project meetings.
• Keep stakeholders informed of progress and any issues.
• Negotiate solutions when problems arise.
• Verify permissions for content use.
• Ensure all necessary content is sourced and included.
• Collate corrections and manage any necessary arbitration.
• Verify that corrections are made and handle any resulting changes.
• Ensure that the house style guide, referencing style and other style sheets are consistently applied.
• Check artwork for correctness and completeness.
• Anticipate potential issues and resolve unexpected problems promptly.
• Keep production-specific processes and documentation current.

• A Bachelor’s degree in Publishing Studies, English language, communications, Library Sciences or a related field.
• 2-4 years of relevant editorial project management experience in academic or scholarly book publishing.
• Experience working with freelancers and managing multiple projects simultaneously.
• An understanding of the South African scholarly publishing environment.
• Demonstrable numeracy skills used in work environments, especially related to managing budgets.
• Strong negotiation abilities.
• Strong communication skills.
• Strong knowledge of MS Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Familiarity with HTML, XML and ePUB
• Proficiency in project management software and tools (e.g. ClickUp, Trello or Asana).
• Strong English skills
• Ability to multi-task
• Attention to detail and critical thinking
• Being well-organised and able to manage short deadlines