The Publishers Association (PA) and the Independent Publishers Guild (IPG) will launch a revised charter, website and network for the Equality in Publishing (Equip) scheme next week, with the aim of attracting the best people possible into the industry.
According to The PA, EQUIP, originally established by the Diversity in Publishing Network (Dipnet) in 2004 and promoting equality and diversity in the publishing industry, has been dormant for almost two years, and needed a “fresh impetus”.
The charter says members, who can be publishers, agents or booksellers, will engage and attract new talent by adopting inclusive recruitment policies, practices and traineeships, and where appropriate, engage in outreach work to increase the profile of publishing to traditionally underrepresented groups.
As well as the renewed charter, which aims to ‘create a network of businesses with a commitment to equality and diversity in publishing’, and website, Equip is also staging a series of events over the coming months to discuss diversity in publishing.
The Equip network aims to provide support for people looking for jobs in publishing, promote publishing as a career, support members with information and advice, and host seminars and networking events.
Upcoming Equip events include a BIC New Trends seminar on September 8, titled ‘Building a relevant book industry for the future: diversity, content and data’, and seminars at the Society of Young Publishers conference and the IPG conference.
