Publishing Director - New Trade Fiction Imprint

About the Role

Seven Seas Entertainment is seeking an experienced publishing professional to help build and lead a new general-market trade fiction imprint focused on publishing Japanese fiction in English translation for the U.S. trade market.

This is a new area of publishing for Seven Seas, separate from our seasoned and successful manga and light novel publishing programs. The imprint will publish prose fiction for the general U.S. trade market, with a readership, competitive landscape, positioning, packaging, and marketing approach distinct from Seven Seas’s existing publishing programs. 

We are specifically seeking someone whose expertise is in contemporary U.S. adult trade fiction, who understands what adult fiction readers are buying today and what it takes to build a successful commercial fiction list. The Publishing Director will play a central role in shaping the imprint—from acquisitions and list strategy through editorial development, positioning, packaging, marketing, and launch.

We also want someone who understands and respects how an accurate translation becomes a compelling English-language novel. The Publishing Director will oversee the editorial development of the list, ensuring that our books read as polished, professionally edited English-language fiction while preserving what makes the originals distinctive.

Most importantly, we want someone with strong opinions backed by experience. This is an opportunity for an experienced trade publishing professional to have a major role in building a new fiction imprint from the ground up.

What You’ll Do

Publishing Strategy & Acquisitions

• Evaluate prospective acquisitions for their potential with general-market U.S. fiction readers, including concept, audience, comps, positioning, market trends, and commercial potential.
• Advise senior management on acquisitions and identify promising titles and publishing opportunities.
• Stay deeply current with the U.S. adult trade fiction market—what is selling, what readers are responding to, how categories are evolving, and where new opportunities may be developing.
• Help determine the publishing calendar, release strategy, and sequencing of titles.

Positioning, Packaging & Marketing

• Determine the positioning, target readership, primary hook, and comparable titles for each book.
• Play a leading role in developing English-language titles, covers, packaging, and jacket copy.
• Bring strong commercial judgment to format, pricing, metadata, and other decisions that affect how a book is perceived in the marketplace to ensure that our books are packaged and positioned to compete directly with successful general-market adult fiction in their respective categories.
• Work closely with Marketing department on strategy for the imprint and individual books, including bookseller and reviewer outreach, social media, influencers, book clubs, and other discovery channels.
• Stay current on how adult fiction is discovered and discussed through online and offline channels.

Editorial Direction & Publishing Management

• Set and maintain the editorial standards for the imprint.
• Help identify and evaluate editors, translators, copy editors, proofreaders, and other contributors.
• Evaluate translated manuscripts for accuracy and ensure they meet professional U.S. trade publishing standards for prose, including voice, tone, and readability.
• Provide substantive editorial direction to editors and translators, and work hands-on with important or challenging projects when appropriate.
• Oversee the editorial and production schedule and work across Editorial, Marketing, Licensing, Sales, Production, and Design to keep each book on track from acquisition through publication.

Why Seven Seas

This is an unusual opportunity: the chance to help build a new trade fiction imprint within an established and successful publishing company.

You’ll have the resources and publishing infrastructure of Seven Seas behind you as you help us grow into an area that is new for the company. We are looking for someone who knows the U.S. adult trade fiction market extremely well, has a track record of success in it, and has strong ideas about how translated fiction can compete for those readers.

If your background is in acquiring, editing, positioning, and publishing successful adult fiction for the general trade market—and the opportunity to help build a new fiction imprint from the ground up appeals to you—we’d like to hear from you.

What We’re Looking For

Required

• Significant professional experience in U.S. trade book publishing, with substantial recent experience acquiring and publishing adult commercial fiction for general-market readers.
• Deep and current knowledge of the U.S. adult fiction marketplace, including changing reader tastes, market trends, successful categories, and emerging opportunities.
• Strong commercial instincts about titles, covers, packaging, positioning, comparable titles, and target readership.
• Strong editorial skills, including line-editing, with an exceptional command of written English.
• Experience working across the major stages of trade publishing, from acquisition and editorial development through publication.
• Excellent communication, organizational, and leadership skills.

Preferred

• 10+ years of progressively responsible experience in trade book publishing.
• Recent experience at a major U.S. trade publisher or highly regarded independent publisher.
• Experience as a Senior Editor, Executive Editor, Editorial Director, Associate Publisher, Publishing Director, or similarly senior acquiring editor.
• A record of identifying, acquiring, positioning, or launching commercially successful adult fiction.
• Experience with commercial genres such as mystery/crime, horror, contemporary fiction, cozy/healing fiction, historical fiction, or literary/commercial crossover.
• Experience helping launch or develop an imprint, publishing program, or fiction list.

How to Apply:

Send an email to jobs@gomanga.com introducing yourself with a copy of your resume and information about your relevant publishing industry experience. Please list your location and include links to your portfolio or samples of your previous work.

[Note: Some of our releases may contain sexual content. If you are not able to work on this type of content, then please do not apply.]