Andrew

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Harlequin Mills & Boon Ltd

Contracts Administrator/Privacy Officer
20 January 2003- Current

Responsibilities

Writing contracts with authors for all books acquired by HM&B, and processing advances and royalty payments. Responding to queries from the international author base and from the Editorial department. Processing all permissions/licensing requests from third party companies. Assisting Marketing and Editorial departments in the preparation of promotional offers under the terms of the licensing agreement between Harlequin Books SA and HM&B. Responding to Rights enquiries from Sales department. Ensuring that information is communicated accurately to the Finance department and the Swiss operating company for the reporting of royalties. Working with the company secretary to ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act, and co-ordinating responses to official notices under the act with the Legal department.

Achievements/Skills

· Assisted with the transition to an online database/editorial resource used for the acquisition of manuscripts, and subsequently trained new staff in the use of the system
· Worked with Legal department in Canada to establish "best practice" guide for promotional offers (eg "Buy One get One Free") for Marketing and Sales Departments.
· Acted as interface between in house Legal department in Canada and independent UK counsel to ensure the timely, complete and accurate response to several Section 10 notices and Subject Access Requests under the Data Protection Act. Provided summaries of procedure for senior management globally.
· Created and subsequently managed a centralised electronic database of publication records, used by Editorial department for tracking author activity.
· Trained Editorial Department in the use of AS400 Royalty System on a SQL server, and imported information from this to produce reports in Excel on Editorial department's request.
· Prepared an average of 150 contracts a year, and dealt with queries from authors in a timely and accurate fashion.
· Assisted with the introduction of a new standard contract for series titles.

Blackwell Publishing (London Office)

Editorial Assistant
20 August 2001-30 September 2002
Responsibilities

Administration of two journals allowing the external journal editors in-chief and other editors to
concentrate on the objective of managing the journal. Acting as first point of contact for any enquiries
relating to content and to assist the managing editors as requested in resolving any queries from
either authors or reviewers as quickly as possible.

Achievements/Skills

· Managed the manuscript tracking system and oversaw the flow of submitted articles for both journals (a total of 1,000 submissions per year).
· Maintained accurate records of referees and referee activity including chasing tardy referees and ensured that workload was distributed as evenly as possible.
· Oversaw the initial stages of a transfer to an online publishing system.
· Produced monthly statistical status and performance reports to be used in Editorial meetings to assess the performance of the journals.
· Helped to find potential reviewers and contributors by researching their details using the Internet.

Harper Collins

Temporary Editorial Assistant for the Education Department

3 August 2001-17 August 2001

Assisting the Desk Editor in picture research for 2 Secondary school level historical textbooks. Arranging permission for the work to be reproduced in the textbooks and processing invoices.

Blackwell Publishing (Oxford)

Temporary Rights and Permissions Controller/Editorial
Assistant for the Journals Editorial Department
4 January 2001 - 20 March 2001

· Processed Rights and Permissions requests for 200 Blackwell Publishers Journals and providing editorial assistance to Senior Journals Editors and Commissioning Editors.
· Gained an understanding of the main issues relating to permissions requests, including copyright issues and blanket licenses for charities.
· Negotiated fees for the use of material.
· Processed and allocated permission payments, chased outstanding payments and updated databases.
· Assisted editors in identifying new commissioning leads by researching specific journals on the Internet to facilitate initial approaches and preparation of proposals.
· Assisted with first draft of annual reports for journals, resolving queries and monitoring progress.

Blackwell Publishing (Oxford)

Temporary Rights Income Administrator for the Accounts
Department
12 July - 7 September 1999

· Recording payments received in connection with translated editions, American editions and permissions fees, as an interface between the Rights and Accounts Departments.
· Preparing details of rights income received for posting to Vista royalty system for calculation of author share.
· Preparing and despatching invoices for translation advances due where appropriate.
· Preparing translation contracts for despatch under supervision of Rights Controller.

MPhil(B) American Literature And Film (September 1999- October 2000)
University of Birmingham

BA (Hons) English Studies (September 1996-1999) -2:1
University of Birmingham

10 GCSEs (8 Grade A, 2 Grade B)
1 AS Level (German - A)
3 A Levels (English - A, FPU French - A, History - A)
Abingdon School, Oxfordshire (1989 to 1996)

I am trained in Microsoft Office, and have experience with Apple Macs and in using the Internet including e-mail. I have also used a wide variety of in-house databases. I have attended courses on Microsoft Outlook, Excel and Word.

· Introduction to proof reading (in house at Backwells Feb 2002)
· Introduction To Publishing at the London College of Printing (June 2002).
· Introduction To Contracts (April 2003)
· Data Protection: Compliance and Developments in Law (August 2004)

References available upon request.