AK Press is hiring!
AK Press has an immediate opening for a new collective member. More specifically, we’re looking to expand our publishing department by hiring someone who has a passion for books and ideas, requires little sleep, and knows the difference between Lucy Parsons and Lady Gaga. Read on for more explanation.
The publishing department at AK Press oversees the acquisition, development, production, and promotion of roughly twenty new titles every year, in addition to managing our extensive backlist catalog and seeking new sales avenues for our titles. Ideally, our newest hire will work out of our Baltimore office (but if we can’t live without you then we’ll consider making space in the Oakland warehouse). Our new collective member will be unreasonably organized and efficient, have a sense of humor but take the work of AK Press as seriously as it deserves, and they will spend their time:
- Working with authors to think through and develop promotional campaigns for their books
- Creating promotional materials for AK & AK Press books
- Building relationships with reviewers, media producers, bloggers, and other public outlets
- Developing and expanding the AK Press social media world
- Responding to review copy requests when they come in, and following up when they go out
- Partnering with other publishers, bookstores, and organizations to expand the boundaries of AK Press’s core readership
- Traveling for tabling gigs and conferences
- Being a communicative public face for AK Press
- Playing an organizational role in our publishing department (Keeping track of annual deadlines, staying on top of our production schedule and marketing & publicity schedule, working with project coordinators through various steps of the publishing process)
- Acquiring new titles and authors
The day to day tasks revolve around the functions of the publishing department but as a member of the collective you’ll be self-managing the largest and most productive anarchist publishing house and distribution center in the world. Our jobs are tremendously fun, but remember, this is hard work.
Required skills include some combination of:
- Working knowledge of anarchist politics, past and present
- Communication skills (writing, public speaking)
- Fluency with design/design software (Adobe preferred)
- Experience in the book trade
- Experience with Macs and Excel, Word, Photoshop, Constant Contact, and WordPress
- Experience with social media/website development
- Impeccable organizational skills
Recommended skills include:
- Relevant job experience managing multiple projects at once
- Experience working collectively
- Connections to current political activities
- A history of full-time employment, preferably work that is self-directed
- Contacts with relevant writers, reviewers, media contacts, etc.
- Foreign language skills
The position is full-time (40hrs per week plus additional nights and weekends, as necessary). We offer comprehensive health care, twenty-four paid vacation days a year (in addition to May Day, our only official holiday), and a salary of $27,500.
Still interested? Please send a resume and cover letter to jobs@akpress.org with the subject line: ATTN Publishing Position | YOUR NAME. All queries must be received by January 15. Your cover letter should address why you want to work with AK Press, and highlight your ideas about reaching people with the books and ideas we publish – send us your manifesto for making AK Press books dinner table conversation around the country and beyond. Let us know what you have to offer, and where you’ll take us as a member of our collective.
Thanks in advance for your interest and we look forward to hearing from you!