The way back home

I recently had a full-circle moment when I had the opportunity to pitch an author to the director of a literary festival. 

It was for the first literary festival I’d ever been to as a teenager, and the meeting was taking place just a few hundred yards away from the venue I’d so eagerly attended for the talk. Pitching an author to the very festival that had ignited the thought that this industry might have a place for me in it felt incredibly odd.

When I decided to start my career, like many others, I had to move away from my family and hometown in the north-west to take an entry-level role.

Working in non-London publishing has fulfilled a long-held ambition, to have a job I love and yet still be close to my loved ones. Three years in for HarperNorth and the successes are clear

There’s never been any shortage of talent outside of the south-east, of course. There have, however, been barriers that have hindered entry to the industry—for many groups of people of course, and those living beyond commuting distance of the capital are just one of those demographics. Nearly everyone wanting to work in trade publishing outside the south-east has either had to compete for the relatively few jobs in the gloriously productive—and multi-award winning—small publishers scattered across the rest of the UK, or move away from home to work. 

So when HarperCollins announced a Manchester-based imprint, I was delighted. 

Working in non-London publishing has fulfilled a long-held ambition, to have a job I love and yet still be close to my loved ones. Three years in for HarperNorth and the successes are clear.

The three strands of authors, readers and industry staffers all benefit from regional working. 

Authors have greater choice of publishing house, from indies to small presses, to trade publishers such as HarperCollins and Hachette, who now have several regional offices. Booksellers see more titles reflecting the communities and audiences they serve.

Readers are given more opportunity to buy books that better represent and showcase their interests, lives and experiences rather than being presented with a homogeny of titles on a bookshelf.

For an industry obsessed with the new, we can be tanker-slow to change. Although we need opportunities to evolve sustainably, regional publishing is growing. As with every new way of working, it’s not all perfect at first, and brings unexpected challenges. Junior staff still need training and networks, or they could struggle to progress within the smaller fields. Colleagues at all levels should be able to access peer support outside their direct reports. But we need to all work to ensure this is possible, while publishing remains incredibly London-centric, with nearly every industry drinks session, symposium and meet-up still happening in London, with the notable exception of literary festivals. 

For staff, the benefits of regional working are manifold. For publishers, employee turnover can be slowed by allowing people to work regionally, as moving out of the south-east will not necessitate leaving the industry.

Being outside London gives a different perspective on the industry and how working life might develop over the coming years. There are opportunities to try working in new ways, not least with hybrid working better fitting work/life balance, caring needs and parenting. Regional publishing is an important part of the industry’s progression and adaptation and managed carefully, with sustainable growth and investment, it could prove a powerful solution to the numbers of staff exiting the industry. It can serve authors, readers and retailers well too – why wouldn’t we as an industry want to be better at that? 

Alice Murphy-Pyle will be speaking at The Bookseller’s Marketing and Publicity Conference on the panel "Is This Working? Examining Our Workplace Dynamics’"at 12.15 p.m.