Bonnier introduces more inclusive recruitment and BAME internship

Bonnier Books UK has launched a new recruitment policy and increased the salary for interns to £18,000 p/a (pro rata) in an attempt to be more inclusive.

It has also signed an "important and timely" anthology of writing by black British women, edited by Slay in Your Lane duo Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinené (pictured below), and launched an affiliated black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) internship scheme.

From 1st November, Bonnier Books UK will no longer accept CVs: it will ask candidates to fill in anonymous application forms instead. HR director Anna MacLaren-May said "anonymising job applications is helping companies to tackle unconscious bias", and said of interns’ pay: "Simply put, we weren’t paying enough previously."

The firm’s BAME editorial internship, run in collaboration with Creative Access, will tie into the Lagom imprint’s launch of Slay in Your Lane Presents: Loud Black Girls, The Anthology. Natalie Jerome, acquisitions director and publisher for Bonnier Books UK, acquired world, all-language rights from Juliet Pickering at Blake Friedmann. Audio rights went to Audible.

The project gives 20 black British women an open brief, "so readers can expect frank, funny and fearless contributions about the issues facing black women today from a range of pioneers". It will also feature a contribution by the winner of a forthcoming open-submission competition, an introduction by Adegoke and Uviebinené, and a foreword by one of the contributors.

The BAME editorial intern will start in November, working with the Slay in Your Lane... publishing team full-time, assisting at every stage, from commissioning to print. Jerome said: "This book will reach out to black women, who often lack representation in the media and in books, and will engage and entertain anyone interested in a world where cultural diversity is the norm."