How we got started in publishing: Paige Henderson

Posted on July 17, 2020 in UK

COVID-19: Improving access to arts and culture

Paige Henderson, Publishing Coordinator at Lendal Press, shares her lockdown reflections on the creative industries.

Did you know you were probably seven-years-old when you made up your mind about your career? What we see as appropriate, and inappropriate, jobs for people of our gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic background has and will be shaped by what we see around us. Lockdown has made us confront the uncomfortable stereotypes of an industry that many of us are proud to have broken into. #PublishingPaidMe, Niamh Mulvey’s ‘On Publishing’ and Crystal Mahley-Morgan over on The Bookseller have done serious leg-work to show us what genuine inclusivity might look like.

The Publishers Association’s most recent Diversity and Inclusion survey reveals there is a greater need to invest in recruitment and retention of BAME employees, who currently represent only thirteen per cent of the workforce. As Jessica Andrews and Kit de Waal have been saying, regional diversity is also in need of serious improvement if the industry is to respond to a robust market’s demands for home-grown authors. The North East has the lowest representation in the industry, weighing in at 1.2 per cent, compared to the South East’s twenty-six per cent.

There are fears that those already having difficulty getting into creative industries are most at risk from being excluded as sectors recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Research in January by the charity Education and Employers suggests five times as many 17- and 18-year-olds in the UK want to work in art, culture, entertainment and sport as there are jobs available. Trying to get a job in an industry like publishing has always been an immensely competitive yet worthy thing, but in the middle of a pandemic, it seems nigh impossible. According to the Institute of Student Employers, around a quarter of employers (27%) say that they will be recruiting less graduates, 23% less apprentices and school leavers and 31% less interns and placement students. Simply put, we need to do more to reach writers and editors across the UK from a range of backgrounds.

That’s why, in the middle of lockdown, Jamie McGarry of Scarborough indie Valley Press and I launched a new imprint, Lendal Press, in York. The city has a thriving cultural and literary scene and students who possess boundless enthusiasm. Why wouldn’t we set up camp there?

As with many a British graduate, there followed something of a fallow period professionally for me post-uni, going from job to job with constant worry about where I was going. I was hungry for truly original new work from undiscovered authors and I don’t think I realised until launching Lendal Press that my editorial work has always been rooted in this hunger. When launching Lendal Press, more than ever, I needed manuscripts with exhilarating complexity, manuscripts that moved me, grooved me, hurt me, even. I wanted to be surprised and enlivened by what I was working on.

I wanted a space for up-and-coming editors to feel that same way, too. Lendal Press will publish books that reflect the concerns, experiences and tastes of those whose access to the publishing industry has been historically lacking. Those interested in working as a freelance editor for our hybrid publishing model are urged to get in touch with me at hello@lendalpress.com. Lendal Press contributes half the budget for each new publication, with the other half coming either from public funding or crowdfunding.

I feel delighted to take a step towards a more equitable, diverse and transparent publishing industry in the UK. We are looking forward to being honest about what we do, how we do it and who does it, and continuing to ask ourselves the difficult questions along the way.

You can follow Lendal Press on Twitter @lendalpress