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Bookselling and Website Editing Intern, Backstory

  •  London
  •  £20k-25k
  •  Full time
  •  Closes May 18, 2025
  •  Tom Rowley
  •  summerinternship@backstory.london
  • #Literature

Description

Job Description

About the internship

Join the small and friendly team at our independent bookshop in south London for the summer and take your first steps on a career in retail or publishing.

The Bookselling and Website Editing Intern will join us full-time for eight weeks at our bookshop in Balham.

This is a full-time placement based at our bookshop, with no working from home. The successful candidate will join us for eight weeks beginning 8 July 2025, working Tuesdays to Saturdays, with regular daytime and evening shifts.

The summer intern will be paid the London Living Wage (£13.85 an hour).

Applications close at midnight on 18th May.

What the role will involve

We're a very small team so tasks will be different from day to day. The successful candidate will be a good team player who can adapt to the changing requirements of the bookshop.

You will gain broad experience of bookselling, ecommerce and marketing. You will work with enthusiastic and book-loving customers and colleagues, meeting authors at in-store events, reading proof copies of forthcoming books and talking about your favourite reads.

You will be on your feet for most of the day, five days a week. Enthusiasm, a good sense of humour and a willingness to work hard are essential.

Job Requirements

Required:

  • You must be over the age of 18 and have an existing right to work in the UK;
  • You must have exemplary communication skills and an extremely high standard of written English;
  • You must be an extremely keen reader with a broad taste in books.

Useful but not essential:

  • Retail experience;
  • Barista or other hospitality experience;
  • Social media or website experience.

Job Responsibilities

Tasks will include:

  • Warmly welcoming customers and swapping book recommendations with them;
  • Unboxing deliveries of books and shelving them;
  • Preparing and serving food and drink at our bar;
  • Assisting with the redevelopment of our website, liaising with other booksellers and our website developer;
  • Editing existing bookseller reviews and repurposing them into content for the website to a very high editorial standard;
  • Assisting in developing social media content for our Instagram;
  • Assisting in hosting our weekly author events;
  • Contributing mini-reviews of books you've enjoyed for our shop displays, social media, website and newsletter.

Skills you'll develop: customer service, copywriting, proofreading, knowledge of the publishing industry, retail skills, inventory management, attention to detail, ecommerce skills, content creation, time management, organisation, teamwork and multi-tasking.

How to Apply

Please email your answers to the following, as PDF attachments with your name at the top of each page to [email protected] by midnight on 18th May:

In no more than 100 words, please describe a book you recently enjoyed. 
In no more than 150 words, please explain why you would be right for this internship. 
Please attach your CV. 

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