Bookcareers.com launches salary survey

Careers consultancy bookcareers.com is gathering data for its latest salary survey, with results to be published in September.

Launched in 1995, the bookcareers.com Salary Survey analyses salaries from book publishers and literary agents based in UK and Ireland who employ staff on a salary or a fixed term contract basis.

According to bookcareers.com, the analysed data is useful to small and large publishers in understanding market rates for specific roles, which helps to foster fair salaries for staff. The survey has seen this to be "particularly helpful" for entry and mid-level roles as there is "little salary data about the book industry available", the survey's organiser said.

Suzanne Collier, founder of bookcareers.com, said: “We’ve always believed that salary information should be transparent. Bookcareers.com is guiding people daily into making important career decisions and we are committed to keeping our clients are fully informed as to the salary they can expect before making such choices." 

As well as monitoring the increased digitisation of roles, the questionnaire will pose questions such as “How much of your time are you spending on digital products?” It also has additional questions relating to student debt, the cost of living and commutes into work. It will also be asking people the reasons why they intend to remain in their job as well as why they might want to leave.

The 2017 survey will be sponsored by publishing recruitment agency Inspired Search & Selection.

Suzy Astbury, m.d. of Inspired Search & Selection said: “Inspired has specialised in placing publishing candidates within the industry from entry level to board level since 1999. We are always looking to add value and offer market insight to clients and the industry and are often called for guidance and advice on salary benchmarking to ensure the industry remains competitive in the remuneration they are offering. Being part of the bookcareers.com Salary Survey is a fantastic way of using data to open up the discussion about a crucial part of people’s working lives – their remuneration.”

The survey is available here and will be online until midnight on 28th July 2017. Results are due to be published in September 2017.