Since the publication of Spread the Word’s writing the future report in 2015, publishers all around the world have made huge steps towards a more diverse and equal workplace. In order to do this publishers must encompass all areas, from; recruitment to un-bias training. Publisher’s, as a result, have been seen as more open and progressive in comparison to other business-based industries.

To date, BAME writers have struggled to get their manuscripts and ideas commissioned and published. Many BAME writers felt pressured into writing only about racial and ethnic stereotypes, giving them a sense of constraint in the types of genre they can penetrate – again limiting the number of published BAME writers across a plethora of genres. The reality is publishers often find the idea of new colour writers a much riskier investment in comparison to other writers, however, this mentality across numerous publishers only cements this idea further and limits BAME writers to being a minority voice within the publishing industry. This is not only during commissioning processes but across the board; including production and marketing of such books.

Despite publishing becoming increasingly progressive and diverse, this is an issue that has been discussed for years, not only for authors of colour but for equality between male and female writers and publishers alike. This is an issue that still needs more work and not enough is being done to eradicate any prejudices or bias’.

UK Publishers Association: “The number of women in senior leadership roles, representation of LGBT+ staff and representation of disabled staff are all high within publishing. … However, despite positive results in many areas significant progress still needs to be made around the numbers of BAME [black, Asian, and minority ethnic] staff employed and improving regional diversity across the industry.”

A survey in 2018 found that the ratios of male and women in senior publishing roles had equalled out more significantly than in previous years. Statistics showed that 54% of senior leadership and executive-level roles were held by women (56 per cent in senior leadership roles and 48 per cent at executive level). However only 11.6% of respondents identified as BAME, 8.2% as LGB, 5.4% identifying as having a disability or impairment and 0.6% as transgender. Highlighting a real lack of diversity across the board, despite some advances in gender equality. It is important to point out that this is a global industry issue, not only for publishing but other industries and organisations; including the music and film industry.

Over recent years, books tackling the idea of diversity have been increasingly popular however, it isn’t just the idea of published diverse books that’s at the core of the problem its books of all topics and genres published by BAME authors that is at the centre of the diversity issue. BAME and other minority writers need to feel the freedom to write any genre on any topic without the fear of not getting their manuscript commissioned and published and without having to result to self-publishing.