Sales Manager, Penguin General (12month fixed term contract) (268707)

We are recruiting for a Sales Manager to join Penguin General on a 12-month fixed-term contract, to cover a period of parental leave.

At Penguin General we aim to publish good books that can be picked up and enjoyed by everyone. Our many readers, like our authors, stretch around the world, and what unites both is an intelligent curiosity about the world around us, as well as a love of great storytelling.

Our publishing incorporates bestsellers and prize-winners, from Richard Osman to Robert Macfarlane, from Dolly Alderton to Emily Henry, from Dr Rangan Chatterjee to Ben Macintyre and Stanley Tucci to the Obamas. Our authors come from all over the world – Elif Shafak, Avni Doshi, Mohsin Hamid to name but a few – as well as being homegrown stars like Bernardine Evaristo and Sathnam Sanghera – and Penguin General has a simple mission to connect them with a large and inclusive readership.

The sales team is a small tight team who work hard and enjoy celebrating their success together. We work very closely with our editorial, marketing and publicity colleagues to reach as many readers as possible for all our books.

In this role, you’ll line manage some of the key account team, working closely with them as well as key stakeholders across the publishing division to influence and implement the Penguin General sales strategy, and to grow and extend sales for the division in a very full publishing schedule for 2024-2025. You’ll also work with key colleagues from our Dublin office, our international and non trade sales teams.

You’ll play a key role in our publishing strategy, author meetings, print and stock management and acquisitions, feeding in expertise from market data to influence key decisions on what the division acquires. You’ll also be ready to deputise for the Sales Director when needed.

What you’ll bring:

You’ll be commercially-focused in all that you do, bring retailer experience and UK market knowledge to inform decision making and analysis. You’ll be curious about new opportunities and developments in the marketplace – and how we make those incorporate these market changes into how we work at Penguin General.

To succeed in this role, you’ll have great management and influencing skills, be diplomatic and focused, comfortable relaying good and bad news to colleagues and motivating teams, and good experience of working on author and imprint strategy.

If you feel you can make a difference at Penguin General, we’d love to hear from you.

About Penguin:

We’re the UK’s largest publisher; made up of some 2,000 people and publishing over 1,500 books each year. Our doors are open to all kinds of talent. In a constantly evolving industry, we work hard to stretch the definition of the word publisher. Here, you’ll work with a breadth of talent who all play their part to make each of our books a success. Together, we make books for everyone because a book can change anyone.

Salary:  £46,000 - £58,000 depending on how your skills and experience align to the role, plus bonus and benefits.

Our people are the heart of our business, and we work hard to support a culture of responsibility and recognition. Our benefits include:

• Financial – income protection, life assurance, childcare allowance
• Wellbeing – healthcare cash plan, critical illness cover, health checks
• Lifestyle – enhanced parental leave, tech scheme

For our full benefits list please visit: 

Hybrid working:  We’re experimenting with a hybrid way of working that suits the needs of each team. 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 you to come into the office, based in London, at least twice a week and work the remaining days remotely.

The recruitment process:  You can read about our recruitment process at 

As a Disability Confident Committed organisation, we're part of the offer an interview scheme. This is where disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role can opt in to get to the next recruitment stage. There may be some situations where volume of applicants means we can't take all eligible candidates to interview.

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

Please note, we are not able to accept agency CVs for this role. Any CVs sent speculatively will not be eligible for a fee.

Company:  The Random House Group Limited  

Country:  United Kingdom 

State/Region:  London 

City: London 

Postal Code:  SW1V 2SA 

Job ID:  268707