Freelance Academic Publishing Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Job Summary:
Sage is a leading publishing company in the education sector, seeking an Acquisitions Editor for Business and Management. This role involves acquiring and developing new content, managing active titles, and collaborating with various departments to ensure the success of the Business and Management curriculum.
Responsibilities:
• Market intelligence—be the expert on our external customers, both instructors and students. Know who are they, how they make decisions, and understand their key adoption/purchasing criteria. Interact with customers as much as possible—on campus, at conference/customer engagement events, both in-person and virtually.
• The competitive landscape—understand the competition in each course market you oversee, including content/coverage requirements, technology use, instructor resource expectations. Stay on top of who’s innovating and how, from pedagogy and authorship to competing courseware platforms and nontraditional publishers.
• Curriculum expertise—understand each course market’s needs when it comes to content/coverage, pedagogy, instructional design, learning outcomes, professional standards/accreditation, and use of technology and translate this knowledge into the products you sign, revise, develop, and publish to reflect evolving market trends. Understand how diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) needs to be included in each course market.
• Author management—understand ideal author profiles for new signings; develop and maintain relationships with potential and existing authors; establish guidelines for working with authors, educating them on industry trends, challenges, and changes. Manage conflict, negotiate contract terms, and be able to navigate difficult conversations with authors.
• New acquisitions —focused on priority signing targets, recruit author talent, develop quality proposals, draft clear and persuasive contract proposals, present new projects to the Publishing Committee, negotiate contract terms, and provide updates to key collaborators in Publishing Decision discussions for select key first editions.
• List management—arrange revisions, strategically set schedules, drive efficiencies, provide author care, and take a comprehensive view of the entire list to ensure optimal cycling, profitability, and product differentiation.
• Market research—design surveys, reviews, focus groups, and 1x1 interviews in key markets to vet the accuracy and depth of content and determine projects unique valuable proposition. Collaborate with the content development team and freelancers to set strategy on market research across products and platforms; analyze feedback and data from dashboards and reports to inform decision-making.
• Marketing communication—provide product and content information for titles promoted via marketing communication activities.
• Content development—work closely with content development editors to resolve schedules, establish development achievements, hone unique value propositions, and agree upon digital resources and courseware content needs.
• New product launches—work closely with product specialists and go-to-market specialists to launch key frontlist titles. Present product information in-person and virtual at national sales meetings.
• Thought leader—demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the higher ed publishing industry and its key functional areas – editorial, production, marketing, sales, and product management. Articulate Sage’s strategy, mission, and values.
Qualifications:
Required:
• At least 3-4 years of book acquisition, content development, marketing, and/or sales experience, preferably in higher education textbook publishing.
• Prior experience delivering presentations in person and virtually.
• This role involves travel of approximately 20 days per year, with travel on college campuses, attending conferences and participating in sales meetings encouraged.
Company:
Sage is a global academic publisher of books, journals, and library resources with a growing range of technologies to enable discovery, access, and engagement. Founded in 1965, the company is headquartered in Thousand Oaks, USA, with a team of 1001-5000 employees. The company is currently Late Stage.