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The Survey

My Journey in Earnings

In 2020, the #PublishingPaidMe hashtag took Twitter by storm, highlighting the disparities in levels of advances awarded by publishers to writers from different demographics; notably Black, Asian and minority ethnic authors whose advances were considerably lower than their white counterparts. Publishing needs something like this relating to salaries as an important first step in thinking more deeply about inclusive recruitment practices. Suzanne Collier at BookCareers has already done a lot of important work with her annual Salary Survey. We are not interested in replicating the comprehensive data that can already be found at BookCareers and urge publishers to participate in the next survey in 2021.

 

We are creating a My Journey In Earnings survey to conduct an audit of the publishing industry salaryscape as it stands, to bring retention, career and salary progression, and inclusive culture into the conversation. We are also interested in examining the barriers preventing progression and bringing job-seekers into the conversation to find out what the industry's recruitment process feels like to those it hasn't yet admitted. This is a complicated process and we'd like to get it right, and acknowledge the richness of the work done before us whilst moving forwards.

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And we want more than to know who's being paid what. We want transparency across the board in UK publishing recruitment. We have already seen real, tangible results directly linked with the campaign, with job ads changing, policies being updated, and digital advocacy making real world impact. This is the next step.

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Here is our process, for the sake of transparency:

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  1. Survey design

  2. Consultation

  3. Ethical review

  4. Launch fully anonymised survey

  5. Collect, collate and analyse responses

  6. Compile report, or most appropriate format for data

  7. Present findings and recommendations.

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The BookJobTransparency Survey is currently in consultation and has been delayed because of the implications on the job market of the pandemic. It is vital to us that the data collected through our Survey is as valuable as possible, and timing is important. Please keep checking back for updates, and thank you for your patience.

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