At David Higham Associates, we’re always on the hunt for passionate readers and screen enthusiasts who are ready to start their career in the publishing or film/TV industry.

We see paid internships as a key pathway into the industry for candidates who need to earn a living while they build experience and offer a fair salary as standard. We are keen to attract applications from candidates from under-represented backgrounds in our shared aim to make publishing a more diverse and fully representative industry.

Our internships, one in the Books department and one in the TV, Film & Stage department, are usually offered on a six-monthly basis, to give as many candidates as possible the chance to take their first step into the industry but also to ensure they have the opportunity to take on varied responsibilities.

Typically Books interns manage our submissions inbox, read and report on manuscripts, assist one of our book agents with client-related tasks, help out the translation rights team, fulfil permission requests, help organise our Open Day events and attend and minute Books department meetings amongst other tasks.

Our TV, Film & Stage interns record submissions to producers, create pitch materials for our books, manage social media posts, read and report on scripts and take minutes in departmental and producer meetings, amongst other jobs.

Both interns undertake a variety of office tasks and act as receptionist, answering our phone line.

Interns leave DHA with a good insight into all the functions of an agency and a developed sense of which role interests and suits them best. We mentor our interns with one-to-one sessions throughout their tenure and assist them as they start their permanent job search. We are extremely proud of the varied, exciting roles our interns have since gone on to secure since our internship programme was initiated over a decade ago – not least that, as of spring 2024, no fewer than four of our current permanent staff began as interns.

This is how some of our talented alumnae have summarised their experience with us at DHA:

Anna Barnes, Head of Picture Books at Puffin:

I loved my time interning at David Higham. I learned so much about the industry – from big, fundamental things like how contracts work and how agents and publishers work together to find, launch and nurture authors and illustrators; to small but crucial things like how to write a good email. It was the best possible start to my publishing career.

Aimée Felone, Managing Director of Knights Of, British Books Awards 2022 Children’s Publisher of the Year:

I honestly look back at my time as an intern at DHA with such fond memories! Getting the (paid!) opportunity to work at such an illustrious literary agency gave me the much needed skills and confidence to start formulating my ideas of what I wanted my career to look like and what I wanted my impact in this industry to be.

Rebecca Jamieson, Editor at HQ:

My experience interning at David Higham Associates was invaluable. Not only did I meet some of the most amazing people and brilliant minds, but it gave me an extraordinarily helpful introduction to the publishing industry and agenting. The internship is what you make of it, so if you put yourself forward and get involved, you can learn so much – you could be working on inspiring projects, like the DHA Open Days for Under-represented Writers, or reading submissions and writing reader reports for agents, alongside the internship duties required. For anyone trying to break into the industry, I highly recommend applying to this internship at DHA.

Launched in 2018, the DHA Open Days aim to demystify the industry, and support writers from under-represented backgrounds to gain valuable industry knowledge and develop their work. We run Open Days for adult literary and commercial fiction and also for scriptwriters.

Our 2023 Open Day built on the success of previous years, inviting ten exceptional writers to take part in a day of free workshops and seminars from authors, editors, and leading industry professionals, alongside an in-depth 1-1 feedback session on their submitted work with a DHA agent.

Check back here for news of the next Open Day or follow us on X for the latest info.

Assistant to Book to Screen Agent

With a long-established history in author representation, over 90 books currently under option and a sizeable roster of emerging and established writer clients in all mediums, David Higham Associates is a leading agency in the Literary, TV, Film and Stage industries.

This is a great opportunity to join the TV, Film and Stage department as an assistant to one of the book to screen agents. This will be a very busy role which offers the successful candidate a brilliant opportunity to develop skills in all aspects of agenting including administrative and contractual skills, client management, book/script-reading, pitching authors to production companies and may involve working with screenwriters. The role might suit an existing agent’s assistant or someone with office experience looking to make a move into a new part of the TV, Film or Stage industries. If this sounds like you, we would love to hear from you!

Our offices are based in central London (Soho). Working hours are 9.15am – 5.30pm, Monday to Friday. Please note this is a full-time role and will be based at our offices in London. You would be expected to work a minimum of four days a week in the office for the first year.

Salary will be a minimum of £28,000 per annum depending on experience.

We offer expenses for travel to London to attend interviews. Please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments during the interview process.

Job Description

Admin and departmental:

• Providing administrative support to your line managers in all areas
• Tracking signature of agreements and addendums, ensuring return of fully executed copies
• Raising invoices for producers and chasing payments
• Liaising with Accounts department and clients on payments
• Keeping meticulous records of options and option expiry dates, deals in progress, upcoming publications etc
• Entering contracts on a database and keeping hard copy files in clear order
• Assisting with red-lining of contracts
• Diary management
• Taking notes for book agent and producer meetings
• Preparing departmental newsletters
• Keeping on top of developments in the industry (e.g. ai, studio acquisitions, SVOD developments) and liaising with industry bodies such as Writers Guild, PMA and Society of Authors and attend relevant meetings on this front
• From time to time attending meetings and industry events where required by agent(s) e.g. PMA meetings, producer parties/briefings
• Providing holiday cover and/or general support for other members of the team as required
• Other tasks as required

Authors:

• Handling enquiries about film/TV/stage rights to books and checking status of rights
• Liaising with producers and book scouts about opportunities for book options and reporting back to the team
• Acting as the primary point of contact for enquiries relating to certain clients including Estates managed by your line manager
• Liaising with your line manager on submission lists and submission strategy. Preparing marketing materials for the same
• Dealing with TV, radio permissions and professional stage agreements alongside line manager
• Reading books and making notes

Demonstrable experience

• Support role experience, ideally in a related industry
• Ability to juggle multiple projects and independently prioritise workload
• Exceptional organisation with excellent record-keeping skills
• Confidence working and communicating directly with clients and outside partners
• Diplomacy, tact and discretion
• Working with simple contracts
• Meticulous attention to contractual detail
• Ability to assimilate information and learn quickly

Desirable skills and attributes

• Self-motivated and able to take initiative
• High level of verbal and written communication
• Ability to remain calm and unflustered under pressure
• Good creative judgement
• Knowledge of and passion for the film/TV/Theatre industry – scripted and unscripted
• Assessing scripts and books
• Reads and watches across a range of genres
• Experience as an Agent’s assistant

To Apply

To apply, please send your CV and a brief covering email to Clare Israel and Georgie Smith at dhamediajob@davidhigham.co.uk. You can also contact this email address if you have any questions about the role.

Please format the subject line of your email/s as “YOUR NAME // BOOK TO SCREEN ASSISTANT” and include mention in your covering email of where you heard about this position.

DHA welcomes and encourages applications from any individual regardless of ethnic origin, gender, disability, religious belief, sexual orientation, or age. All applicants will be considered on merit.

Please note that only successful applicants will be contacted.

Applications close midnight Sunday 11th May 2025.

Interview dates: w/c 19th May 2024

Start date: TBC but asap.