POSITION: Senior Acquisitions Editor

DEPARTMENT: University of Georgia Press

JOB SUMMARY:

The Senior Acquisitions Editor is responsible to the UGA Press's Editor-in-Chief for evaluating, acquiring and transmitting 25-30 high-quality, marketable new manuscripts per year for the University of Georgia Press. While this position has some flexibility in the area of acquisition, its primary focus will be History and/or International Studies (as determined by experience of preferred candidate). Responsible for developing intellectually distinguished and successful lists in History and/or International Studies including but not limited to the following series: Studies in Security and International Affairs; Early American Places; Race and the Atlantic World, 1700-1900; Politics and Culture in the Twentieth-Century South; Since 1970: Histories of Contemporary America.

This position also assists the Editor-in-Chief and Director with shaping the Press's overall publishing program and identifying outside funding sources for select projects in need of external support.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

50% Acquire and transmit 25-30 books a year that have scholarly merit and commercial viability and that also support the mission of the Press.

20% Evaluate book proposals (both solicited and unsolicited) and recommend action to the Press's Director and Editor-in-Chief.

10% Attend scholarly meetings and conferences, keeping abreast of developments in the academic fields of acquisition and reporting that information periodically to the Director and Editor-in-Chief and other acquisitions editors.

5% Solicit and evaluate reports from peer reviewers.

5% Prepare estimated cost and revenues for projects under consideration and present to the Press's Editor-in-Chief and Director.

3% Develop and maintain a strong network of Press authors, prospective authors, series editors, and advisers. Serve as positive representative of the Press to the public.

2% Ensure authors' adherence to schedules, formatting guidelines, and permissions requirements in preparing approved manuscripts for transmission to the Editorial Department.

1% Identify sources of outside funding and secure grants to offset publishing expenses.

1% Prepare board reports for presentation to the Press's faculty editorial board. ,

1% Negotiate contracts.

1% Work collaboratively with other departments at the Press to develop effective and timely publishing plans for books acquired.

1% Maintains flexibility and awareness of changes and needs in the office and organization by assuming similar duties and responsibilities as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Education, Experience, Licensure, Certification required:

• Bachelor's degree in a humanities or social science discipline;
• Minimum of five years of acquisition experience with a scholarly or trade publisher;
• Proven track record of working successfully with senior scholars and authors.
• Demonstrated success in list building.

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and/or Competencies required to successfully perform work:

• Ability to work independently and imaginatively in seeking out promising book projects.
• Ability to work effectively with authors and external reviewers.
• Ability to manage multiple, deadline-driven projects simultaneously.
• Tenacity and creativity to see projects through to successful publication.
• Superior communication and networking skills.
• Familiarity with manuscript development and preparation.
• Familiarity with all stages of the publishing process.
• Familiarity with best practices and emerging models of digital publishing, including ebooks and library aggregation.
• Knowledge of copyright and contracts as they relate to book publishing.
• Ability to travel.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree preferred.

Physical Demands:

• Sitting for long periods of time at a computer terminal is required.

• M-F; 8 hrs/day; some evening and weekend work may be required.