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Inkitt is seeking an Associate Editor to join its content team in San Francisco. This role combines traditional editorial judgment with modern data-driven storytelling and AI-assisted creative development.
You will read manuscripts deeply to diagnose where and why stories lose readers, using manuscript analysis, reader feedback, and engagement data. You'll develop clear, bold editorial plans for major rewrites—identifying new hooks, reworked story arcs, sharper character motivation, and payoffs that resonate with readers. Working collaboratively with authors and agentic AI tools, you'll execute those rewrites and test your instincts through reader testing, interpreting results to inform future editorial decisions.
You'll build strong relationships across the organization—with authors, freelance editors, marketing, and the wider content team—who will be your collaborators in making each book better. This is a hands-on role where your editorial vision directly shapes published work.
The ideal candidate loves romance and reads widely across the genre, understanding tropes, heat levels, and subgenres with strong opinions on what keeps readers engaged. You have sharp editorial instincts and can articulate exactly why a story isn't working and what would fix it. You're a creative thinker excited by the chance to reinvent a book, not just repair it. You're comfortable developing creative theories from quantitative data—looking at reader metrics, forming hypotheses, and explaining them clearly. You're enthusiastic about using AI as a creative tool, with the taste to judge its output and make it better. You're smart, curious, and hungry to learn fast, take ownership, and step into real responsibility early.
This role requires on-site presence in San Francisco five days per week.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 1–3 years of experience in editorial or publishing, an MFA, or equivalent background (judgment and ideas valued over résumé credentials)
- Deep knowledge of romance as a genre
- Sharp editorial instincts and ability to diagnose story problems
- Comfort with quantitative data and forming creative hypotheses from reader engagement metrics
- Enthusiasm for AI as a creative tool
- Ability to work on-site in San Francisco five days per week
NICE TO HAVE:
- Experience with serialized or web fiction (Wattpad, Galatea, Kindle Vella, webtoons)
- Experience giving developmental feedback to writers
- Your own fiction, playwriting, or screenwriting experience
