What the Publishing Industry Is Doing to Further Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Accountability and sustained, industry-wide effort at all levels will be essential to promote equity and inclusion

Earlier this year, after the protests following George Floyd’s death, statements supporting Black Lives Matters and social justice arose from every corner of the book publishing industry—publishers, bookstores, authors, agents, suppliers, and more. Demonstrating that those statements have not just been lip service, the Book Industry Study Group hosted a panel with a range of publishing professionals to discuss specific ongoing efforts and action plans.

Notably, the current conversation is not limited to or even focused on diversity, an idea and goal that feels almost dated in today’s environment. Organizations and companies now talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion. April Powers, the chief equity and inclusion officer at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), noted that if 2010 was about working on inclusion and unconscious bias, today the conversation is centered on psychological safety and antiracism. “You can invite people to the party, but what compels them to stay?” she said, referring to the phenomenon where BIPOC people get hired but then quickly leave the company when they lack support or burn out from the emotional work of being the sole voice of their underrepresented group.

Roadblocks to progress are many, but the panel agreed that one critical roadblock is trying to reinvent the wheel. Angela Bole, the CEO of the Independent Book Publishers Association, said that when the IBPA formed its DEI task force, they spent five meetings on the definition of diversity that were ultimately irrelevant—because other organizations have already done this work. “Find those [existing] definitions and apply them,” she said. As an example, during the discussion Nicole Johnson of We Need Diverse Books mentioned their organization has come up with a definition of disability that is unique in the industry; other panelists expressed interest and enthusiasm for adopting it. (The definition includes but is not limited to physical, sensory, cognitive, intellectual, or developmental disabilities, chronic conditions, mental illnesses, and addiction. They also see disability as created by barriers in the social environment due to lack of equal access, stereotyping, and other forms of marginalization.)

It can be challenging to keep up with the best or preferred ways of talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion. To that end, Powers said the SCBWI hopes to create a standard that the entire publishing community can use. For example, Powers emphasized her use of the word underrepresented in discussing SCBWI’s initiatives, preferring it over marginalized or minority. She also expressed a preference for #livedexperience instead of #ownvoices and #expertreader in place of #authenticityreader. SCBWI is also working on gender-neutral language standards and emphasizing word choices that don’t stigmatize certain groups. For example, a story that might typically be described as dark could instead be called mysterious, and instead of calling a character crazy, writers could a word like frazzled.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion work should not be siloed from the rest of the organization. Ellen Bush, who works at UNC Press (and is part of the Equity, Justice, and Inclusion Committee at the Association of University Presses) said that equity conversations have to be carried into all spheres of work. It doesn’t belong just to the DEI committee and is work that has to be done by everybody for it to be transformative to the organization. Bush said, “Traditional hierarchies of power and management are not going to be what defines the success of your equity work. You must remain accountable to those who have traditionally been excluded from these tools of power. Trust is something that has to be earned every day. One act of doing something for DEI is not the be all and end all to establishing a community of equity. It’s something that you have to practice every day. There will be failures and recoveries.”

Publishers are revisiting their job descriptions to help increase diversity and inclusion. Andrea Weinzimer at Big Five publisher Hachette says that every time the company now posts a job, they are revisiting the description and asking if it’s inclusive and if the requirements are appropriate. For example: Must new hires have publishing industry experience? Does the required education level unnecessarily exclude candidates, especially those from underrepresented groups? Must the person be based in New York City? Powers, who has a recruiting background, said the language in job descriptions matters. Adding BIPOC encouraged to apply is important and makes a difference.

Hachette is also taking a harder look at how they bring new hires on board and how they can ensure their success. Weinzimer concluded by saying, “It’s not one and done. We can’t check a box on any of these things.” That said, Hachette will be adding diversity goals to performance reviews for executives; meeting those goals will affect compensation starting in 2021.

Agent Michael Mejias at Writers House said it’s necessary for the industry to recruit people outside of publishing to address the lack of diversity at the managerial and director level. Johnson of We Need Diverse Books concurred, saying it’s a both-and situation: it’s necessary to bring in more diverse entry-level employees and recruit those currently underrepresented at the senior level. If everyone just waits for entry-level people to move up the ladder, “it’ll be decades” before the industry’s numbers improve, she said. Powers at SCBWI encouraged hiring managers to consider the necessity of hiring for parallel skills, skills from other industries that can be used in publishing. She also said at the internship and associate level especially, companies have to pay a living wage, or otherwise they will only attract a certain privileged class of people who have financial resources.

Notably, Penguin Random House just announced that its entry-level salary will increase from $40,000 to $45,000 next year—the highest entry-level salary among the Big Five. The trade division of Macmillan Trade already announced their entry-level salary will increase to $42,000 at the end of 2020. Simon & Schuster has raised entry-level salaries to $40,000 from $36,000. HarperCollins’s entry-level salaries are determined by a union agreement; they currently stand at $36,000.

Bottom line: Bole from the IBPA emphasized that DEI work is a marathon, not a sprint—it will continue for years to come and not be complete after a few organizational meetings. Powers said research shows that when organizations are more diverse, they perform better, not least because the growth to come in publishing is going to be global and outside of the Anglophone world. But it’s critical to measure. “You treasure what you measure,” she said. “If you don’t start now, you won’t know how far you’ve come.” Each organization has to develop tools and protocols to analyze representation among authors, peer reviewers, freelancers, and suppliers—and to track hiring and progress of in-house staff. Bush from the AUP said, “The point of equity is to disrupt, frankly, white supremacist hierarchies, and that’s going to require expanding the management table to include voices that haven’t been included before. It’s recognizing that you are missing some essential skills in your management team. I want to advocate for not waiting for diversity to trickle up. You’ve got to smash it from the top.”