Remapping a career

The doorway to opportunities in the capital is widening. Most internships now offer a modest stipend, and more of the barriers which need to be dismantled are being recognised. But the conversation needs to broaden: geography is important, and there are considerations more complex than the monthly cost of bills. Each time in my career that I have gone to the job listings, there has been one recurring detail tugging on my optimism. Location: London.

As a new hopeful in 2018, a London-based work placement would have meant quitting my waitressing job, finding somewhere I could afford to stay for six weeks and then returning home with no plan for what came next.

If I were to snag a full-time job, that would mean moving my life to a city with a very particular culture and routine. It would mean asking my boyfriend to do the same. It would mean stitching myself into a lifestyle that I knew wasn’t for me.

I would never have admitted that I didn’t want to go to London, for fear of coming across as less committed to the cause. That line on a job description is given like an afterthought, but for some of us it’s a life-changing request. Nevertheless, like most applicants, I was willing to try.

Closer to home

But, on some good advice, I found there was another publishing ecosystem on my doorstep in South Wales, and so I learnt the trade among small budgets and big ideas. Regularly it would be assumed, “So you’ll be off to London then,” and fairly so: those ceilings are much higher than among the independent presses of Wales. But this seemed like a problem that needed to be solved, rather than submitted to. By the time I was looking to move away from home, I went where I thought I would be best placed to ride a wave that was already overdue.

The North of England is studded with brave and blossoming independent presses; publishing is already outside London, but the majority of its money is not. When I lived in Manchester, I was disappointed to find that despite talk from certain large publishers, small stirrings remained small. The most exciting change was the establishment of HarperNorth: a newly-formed team with a northern-focus, rather than a satellite office with a conveniently regional postcode.

Cue the pandemic. Conversations about location and lifestyle fuelled some of these previous flickers into larger fires. Awareness around personal circumstance seemed to grow as teams managed remotely for a while. Lots of us realised that the “new normal” was an opportunity to create change.

But each month I returned to those job listings and was met with disappointment. Few posts strayed far from the M25, and any that weren’t necessarily in-person still requested that the applicant live close enough to commute in. “Flexible” and “remote” working were terms littered through descriptions, but which in reality did not expand the map for those entering the industry.

Location: London. I understood. I had been working remotely for a Welsh publisher for almost two years. Doing so can be isolating and, for someone new to their role, hampered by not having a colleague down the corridor to answer small questions, to reassure. I craved a team of people to work with—others to watch and absorb knowledge from, live events to broaden my network.

The biggest brick in the wall

Continuing openness to remote and flexible working is important for numerous reasons, but the biggest brick in this geographical barrier is that there is not enough meaningful activity rooted outside London. We know why we should be tackling this: to expand regional reach, diversity of stories, cultural engagement. Creating jobs in books—ones with room for ambition and growth—beyond the traditional centre, should be one of those driving factors.

Hachette, with its new All-Together Network offices, is making an important effort, but until we start to see headquarters re-established, agencies springing outwards, and serious, consistent engagement with those businesses already outside of the ring-road, I don’t think satellite locations and “flexible” options on job applications is enough. It’s an excellent start, but what we need is real, gravitational redistribution. And, most importantly, a transformation of limiting and London-centric attitudes across the field.

As a young regional professional, I’ve had to seek out—sometimes even create—opportunities where it seemed there weren’t any, and counteract my slower exposure to the industry with hard work and wide-open eyes. My decision to avoid publishing’s thriving hub was risky and unconventional, but my dream is that one day it won’t be. Now, at New Writing North, I see a “new normal” has long been in the making, and with plans for a physical centre of activity to be established here in Newcastle, I dare to be optimistic.

Perhaps, one day, I’ll even open The Bookseller and find a job listing containing the words “Location: Cardiff”.