OpenBooks to launch at FutureBook as a free resource of book industry opportunity

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OpenBooks seeks to reach potential publishing staff from underrepresented backgrounds

Trade bodies the Publishers Association (PA), Booksellers Association (BA) and Association of Authors’ Agents (AAA) are developing a series of free and accessible online events aimed at showcasing a range of book-related career options to students from underrepresented backgrounds, which will be launched as part of this year’s FutureBook Conference, which takes place on 18th November in London. The event will also be streamed online.

OpenBooks will officially go live in February 2023, via a hub, and will include a series of virtual live events and panels, plus short video content. It will primarily be aimed at 14 to 19-year-olds from underrepresented backgrounds, and will cover information on potential careers in publishing, bookselling and literary agenting.

The project promises to demystify career options, identify routes in and position the books industry alongside other inspirational creative industries such as film, TV and music. Events will be open to all and freely available to watch online at any time, reducing barriers to accessibility, including travel and cost.

It comes after the PA’s 2021 workforce survey showed there has been an increase in the diversity of the publishing workforce, but that there are still areas which need to be improved on, with 15% of publishing staffers from ethnic minority groups, 13% having a disability, 13% identifying as LGB and 1% as trans. Socioeconomic background remains a major barrier to inclusion, with 67% from professional backgrounds (whose parents had “professional” or “managerial” jobs like c.e.o.s, doctors, journalists, teachers etc).

The initiative will be promoted via UK schools and education settings, community groups, youth organisations, bookshops and other networks, as well as directly to young people online. Organisers are still consulting with industry partners to ensure a wide variety of needs and community priorities are taken into consideration—especially hoping to address the perception that the publishing industry is inaccessible.

It’s really difficult to build that momentum [of diversity initiatives] and to reach schools if it’s not bigger, if it’s not representative of the whole industry—Jemma McDonagh, agent & AAA member

It is hoped the launch at FutureBook will “galvanise” the trade and encourage more people to get involved. OpenBooks has received £15,000 from Arts Council England, and has welcomed donations from individual publishers and industry groups, including the AAA, BA and PA.

The scheme will be designed to open up lesser-known aspects of the industry. Rebecca Smart, co-c.e.o. of DK and council member of the PA, said: “This is the first initiative of its kind that spans the whole book trade, and the PA is delighted to be working with the BA and AAA in order to reach out to the next generation of talent. We know the industry is still too opaque and we are ambitious about changing that via OpenBooks.” She told The Bookseller: “I think for many young people, [even] if they do know much about the book industry, they think of it as being an editor. What’s so exciting about this is that we can get across the excitement and richness and diversity of all the different ways that you can work with books.”

Reaching out

Smart said it is important to centre the scheme “in the skills and interests of young people”, adding: “We won’t say how to get into foreign rights, we’ll talk about languages; if they are interested in art, it might be more design-focused. We want to speak the language of the people we’re trying to reach.” Agent Jemma McDonagh, deputy m.d. at The Marsh Agency and committee member of the AAA, agreed. “Agents are often the first gatekeepers to our industry, so I really wanted to make sure we were championing our side of the industry,” she told The Bookseller. “I think that it can be really rewarding to work in agenting, particularly because it tends to be a lot of small teams, which can be a really safe space to learn, to grow, to thrive, to ask questions, to fail in a safe space.” She added: “The crux of why we all got into this is the fact that we love books, and you love books wherever you come from. That is the core of what we do and it can only benefit our authors and our books if we are more inclusive, and connect to the next generation in schools in a better way.”

Booksellers Association m.d. Meryl Halls

She praised previous schemes initiated by individual companies to increase diversity, but explained “there was just no way for us to access this library of amazing resources in just one place”. McDonagh continued: “It’s actually really difficult to build that momentum and to reach schools if it’s not bigger, if it’s not representative of the whole industry, and I think that’s why this collaboration for us all has really worked, because we were aware from the get-go that that was the key ingredient: we needed to get out to the schools and to the communities and to reach the students in a way that works for them. I know when I was growing up, I would have been too shy to go into a work experience placement or a meeting, but if I’d have had the research resources online to look at my own pace, that would have encouraged my curiosity to ask a few more questions.”

Mary Kennedy, learning and development manager at Waterstones, said the boom in reading during the pandemic, and the popularity of YA books on TikTok, might inspire more young people to look at a career in the books industry. “There are so many more young people in bookshops, so I’m hoping there will be that interest anyway. Hopefully some people who might not have thought of it previously—because books weren’t as ‘cool’ as they are now—will perhaps come to something like this with a different point of view in the first place.”

Meryl Halls, m.d. of the BA, added: “The BA is delighted to be working with our industry partners on this groundbreaking event. We know that bookselling is often the primary route into the book industry, and bookselling can act as the training ground for booksellers, publishers and even authors. We know that booksellers make the best publishers, and booksellers themselves are community builders, curators and enthusiasts for books of all types; we’re passionately committed to diversifying bookselling and to making bookshops welcoming beacons to all who might want to enter the book trade. What better place to love books? So we are foursquare behind this project and excited to see the next generation of booksellers coming through.”

Catherine Clarke, president of the AAA, also commented: “OpenBooks is a brilliant collaborative project which springs from the recognition across our vibrant book industry that a huge number of talented young people from all backgrounds don’t know about it or feel excluded from it. With enthusiastic and generous support from many book trade bodies and the Arts Council, OpenBooks aims to change that, and the AAA is proud to be a founding member of this initiative.”

Retaining talent

A panel at this year’s FutureBook Conference will dive further into the subject of publishing’s challenges and opportunities around recruitment and retention. The panel, Future Talent: Retaining and Recruiting for Tomorrow, will be chaired by Miriam Robinson and will feature McDonagh alongside Arts Emergency c.e.o. Neil Griffiths, Creative Access programmes manager Yasmin Hemmings, Hachette UK head of talent and management Rowzat Burton and Waterstones head of books and e-commerce Zain Mahmood.

Association of Authors’ Agents president Catherine Clarke

The discussion will elaborate further on the OpenBooks project and lay out the current challenges around recruitment and retention of a dynamic pool of young people from underrepresented backgrounds, but will first and foremost aim to present a guide for positive forward movement. Panelists will assess how publishing fares on this front compared to other industries, discuss current and near-future initiatives underway to recruit and mentor a more diverse workforce, and provide positive examples of change which audience members can take away and implement within their own teams and houses.