28 Writing the Future
these initiatives start up and then die again and again is that the issue of diversity is not taken up properly by those with strategic decisionmaking authority. They are paying lip service to the issue rather than bringing in effective change, because that could attack their privileged position.’
Gloves off Any unwillingness to take on board the true implications of diversity at senior level forms a rift in understanding between well-intentioned senior management and BAME staff frustrated at poor career advancement and a continued feeling of exclusion. It is a feeling even Black and Asian employees who have benefitted from paid internships understand. ‘Everyone has been very nice, but you do look around and think you are the only one here who isn’t like them,’ one intern says. ‘But they don’t really get it, and sometimes they make you feel like you are a special case, as if you are only allowed in because you are Black or Asian and not for your skills. They don’t realise how hard it was to get onto this scheme and how many people you had to compete against.’ At this point, it is worth returning to Alia. She eventually found her way into the trade – through a government funded paid internship – although it continued to feel as if the trade was determined to marginalise staff like her; not only Black, but neither Oxbridge nor middle class. The senior publisher’s advice was not the only such encounter she has had in the past five years. ‘I was asked once by an older publisher ‘where did you get your exotic looks from?’’ she recalls. ‘I have also been asked about my ‘colour’.’ She laughs it off, but it hurts, because, she adds: ‘These are people who should know better, but as an outsider you end up forever making them feel comfortable and forever managing their attitudes. There is so much energy wasted in making these people feel unthreatened.’ Valerie Brandes, founder of small independent publisher Jacaranda Books, says that the problem is that no one wants to confront the issues, for fear of making White publishers
feel uncomfortable. This is because the White publishers are the ones with power: calling them out is not regarded as a smart career move. Brandes benefitted from working at Profile and regards Andrew Franklin as one of those who ‘gets’ the issues that must be addressed to create greater diversity. ‘When I came into publishing everyone said that the people are so ‘nice’, but there are also a lot of big issues that get skirted around because we are so committed to the niceness of everyone,’ she says. ‘These do need to be addressed on a real level.’ No BAME publishing people are saying that the industry is overtly racist. What they are
to do with diversity, sustainability or the environment have a bigger return on their investment to their shareholders, employees and consumers than those who don’t,’ he explains. ‘There is loads of research that shows that. The brand improves in multiple ways. It’s win-win.’ For book publishers, he adds, it is also about recognising how the market has changed in the past decade. ‘Ten years ago, many publishers would have been focused predominantly on English language markets, but now we have saturated those markets, so we have to focus on the foreign language markets,’ he adds. ‘So it makes business, moral and ethnical sense. Why wouldn’t you do it?’
‘Organisations that are involved in anything to do with diversity, sustainability or the environment have a bigger return on their investment to their shareholders than those who don’t.’ saying is that there are institutional issues that need to be addressed at all levels if the trade is to become truly inclusive and take its share of that £300bn spending power. HarperCollins has decided to address this head-on through a diversity forum made up of 20 volunteers drawn from across the company, including senior management. John Athanasiou, director of people, explains: ‘It’s been driven by employees with the support of senior executives and covers everything from people issues to author content and diversity.’ The committee is not just a talking shop. It is expected to come up with strategies that will address diversity not just in race, but gender, disability, sexuality and socio-economic background. For Athanasiou, the business argument for diversity is as sound as the ethical one. ‘Organisations that are involved in anything
Little, Brown Book Group’s Ann Woodhall agrees. ‘Diversity matters because it brings a broader perspective to the company,’ she explains. ‘If you end up with everyone the same then you are going to have a narrow view of how to operate and in a diverse society, you need a much broader range of people, experience and knowledge to reach it.’
Industry buy-in It is not just senior management in individual businesses that need to buy into the need for the industry to better reflect the diversity of 21st century society. To be properly funded it needs buy-in from the whole trade and with that in mind, the Publishers Association (PA) and Independent Publishers Guild (IPG) last year launched the Publishing Industry Charter under the banner of Equip, a successor to DIPNet. The charter commits signatories ‘to