Managing Editor - Custom & Proprietary

What you’ll do

• Take ownership of schedule creation and entry for Custom/Proprietary projects, building realistic timelines from title testing through final delivery.
• Partner with the Custom Sales Publisher, Marketing, Sales, Design, Editorial, and Manufacturing to define project scope, dependencies, milestones, and production needs.
• Act as a primary cross-functional liaison, keeping stakeholders aligned on schedules, priorities, risks, and business goals.
• Use Smartsheet to map publishing seasons, track key manuscript and final-production milestones, and monitor schedule adherence in real time.
• Coordinate closely with Manufacturing to ensure adequate production time for all versions and imprints and protect on-sale dates.
• Bring a questioning mindset to project scoping by challenging assumptions about timelines, dependencies, and scope before they create downstream problems.
• Communicate deadlines, schedule changes, and risks clearly and proactively, and convene the right stakeholders when issues need resolution.
• Ensure project specifications and key data are accurate and consistently maintained across tracking systems.
• Track metrics across Editorial, Design, Production, and Manufacturing, identifying patterns, bottlenecks, and opportunities for stronger execution.
• Continuously evaluate workflows and recommend or implement improvements that increase scheduling accuracy, efficiency, quality control, and cross-departmental coordination.
• Explore publishing best practices, emerging tools, and adjacent workflows to bring fresh thinking into established processes.

What you bring

• 7+ years of experience in editorial production, managing editorial, or project management within publishing.
• Demonstrated success managing complex schedules across multiple teams, projects, or imprints in a deadline-driven environment.
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills, paired with the intellectual curiosity to question the problem itself—not just solve the most immediate symptom.
• Expertise with project management platforms such as Smartsheet, Filemaker, or Basecamp
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a strong sense of clarity, transparency, and stakeholder awareness.
• Agility and adaptability when priorities shift, timelines change, or project requirements evolve.
• Strong organizational skills and comfort using data to support decision-making and continuous improvement.
• A collaborative working style and the ability to build genuine partnership across teams.
• Comfort with ambiguity and a habit of asking the questions that help teams surface risks, assumptions, and better paths forward.
• Familiarity with Agile project management methodologies is preferred.

Why Sourcebooks?

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