WE’RE HIRING: Now accepting applications for a full-time Publicity and Marketing Assistant!
Publicity and Marketing Assistant
We are seeking a full-time publicity and marketing assistant. This position entails the promotion of titles to media, bookseller and media relations, overseeing social media campaigns, and assisting marketing staff with sales materials. But we are also in the process of rethinking all aspects of our promotion and marketing strategies and will be looking for someone who can think creatively and help us discover new ways to promote our authors and their books.
We are looking, especially, for someone who reads widely and well, someone who is, ideally, familiar with the types of books we publish and can understand and place them in a wider context. We are looking for someone who can talk and write about books intelligently and with enthusiasm and enjoys proselytizing on their behalf. A person who enjoys working with authors, discussing ideas, making things, someone who likes mail and isn’t afraid of heavy lifting: the real business of books is moving boxes from one place to another, and then back again.
Though we ideally are looking for someone to join us in our Windsor office, consideration will be given if the best candidate needs to work long-distance. Please make clear whether you are applying for an in person or remote position in your cover letter.
Major Responsibilities:
- read and think about our books
- assist with national and international publicity strategies for 25+ books annually, including electronic pitches, review copy mailings, and related follow-up
- assist in production of marketing materials, including tipsheets, early reading materials, author questionnaires, digital and print catalogues
- assist in the writing of design briefs and cover copy
- build and manage relations with key media throughout North America
- build and manage relations with key booksellers throughout North America
- write and update press releases and pitches
- secure local media coverage for author events
- organize author tours, launches, readings, receptions, and festival and trade show appearances
- travel to the occasional book fair or conference in support of our books and authors
- assist with the designing of promotional material such as postcards, bookmarks, posters, advertisements, and newsletters
- oversee media updates on the press’s website
- work in collaboration with sales representatives in both Canada and the United States so they are informed and enthusiastic about Biblioasis titles
- interact with authors to strategize publicity opportunities and to execute promotional and publicity events
- field author queries and help manage author relations, including travel arrangements
- other duties as assigned
Knowledge, skills, and abilities required:
- individuals must be extremely organized, detail-oriented, and self-motivated problem solvers
- excellent reading skills
- excellent written and verbal communication skills
- excellent interpersonal skills
- must have a high degree of creativity and the ability to think strategically
- must be willing to work occasional evenings and weekends
- computer skills include: Word and Excel experience required. Experience with Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat, Filemaker an asset
Education and experience:
- Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, English, art history, or related field would be an asset
- experience thinking about and presenting books, whether in a professional capacity (e.g. in the classroom, as a bookseller) or more informally (social media) would be an asset
- previous publicity or marketing experience would be an asset
All this being said, what we’re looking for is the best possible person for the job. We’ll be more impressed by what you’ve read and how you write and speak, by how you think, and where you’ve worked—including the automotive factory or shoe store—than where you went to school. Experience would be wonderful, but if you have all of the necessary skills, or even the potential and a willingness to learn, we can train you. We want a person who wants to be here and will do what it takes to make us better. Almost no one at Biblioasis started knowing that publishing could be a career: but we’re thrilled to have discovered it and love the shape it makes in a life. We want, most of all, someone who understands that too.
Salary Expectations:
Salary will be commensurate with experience but will most likely range from 38,000-45,000.
Who We Are:
Biblioasis is an award-winning independent publishing house based in Windsor, Ontario. We publish approximately 30 titles a year, including short fiction, novels, poetry, literary criticism, memoir, belle lettres, local and regional history, and general nonfiction. We are also the publishers of the critical journal CNQ: Canadian Notes & Queries and the annual Best Canadian anthologies and operate an independent bookstore in Windsor’s historic Walkerville.
To apply, email your resume and cover letter to Dan Wells at dwells@biblioasis.com by Friday, January 6, 2023. In your cover letter please tell us about three books that mean the most to you and why they matter. If you want to include something about why you want to work in publishing, and specifically why you want to work at Biblioasis, that would definitely be considered an asset.
