The Bookseller.com

10th May 2008

Victoria Arnstein is supplements editor of The Bookseller.

For the love of books

28.03.08

It is fair to say that very few people enter the word of publishing expecting to make their millions--there are other industries, such as law and banking, that would certainly be a safer bet were that the aim.

More often, people are drawn to the worlds of bookselling, publishing and librarianship because of a love of books and what they represent. The findings of The Bookseller Salary & Benefits Survey 2008 seems to bear this out.

While the average salaries of the respondents across all three of the sectors came in at £25,328—the majority of those asked to rate their pay said "the pay is not great, but I love working with books". Furthermore, the majority (almost half) also say they chose their role because it is the career they always wanted.

Although, interestingly, the second highest reason given for why participants chose their role was because they "fell into it"—the response given by 156 of 411 participants.

Of course, not everyone in the industry is paid poorly, but for those entering the sector—often with university debts and London housing prices to contend with—the low starting salaries can be a struggle. Of the bookselling respondents questioned, more than two-thirds said they were earning less than £20,000, while just over a third of those in the publishing and library industries say the same.

However, despite this, we all know that these sectors—publishing in particular—are not short of people trying to get a foot in the door. And that is part of the reason that the industry can continue to pay lower salaries. As Emma Djonokusumo, senior consultant at JFL Search and Selection recruitment agency points out in the article "For the love of books, not cash": "Until publishing finds it difficult to recruit people it doesn’t  necessarily need to offer a bigger financial incentive.”

David Thew, meanwhile, director of recruitment agency Intelligent Resources, says he often hears the phrase "it’s publishing isn’t it" as an excuse for low pay. His counter argument? That the people at the top of these companies aren’t working for peanuts.

It was also asserted in a previous blog on this website that the majority of people working in publishing were “privately educated Emmas”—a comment made by Bloomsbury boss Richard Charkin about the industry.

Our survey has found that the respondents across all three sectors were in the majority female. The question is whether this is a problem. Certainly some of the industry experts we spoke to said they had diversity initiatives in place to try and broaden their recruitment pool.

To find out how your profile, your earnings and benefits package benchmark against our survey, view the findings here.

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