Bookselling and Publishing Industry joins together to publish new Commitment to Professional Behaviour

AcademicConsumerEducationPress Release
07 Dec 2018

The first Industry Commitment to Professional Behaviour in Bookselling and Publishing (published today, 7 December 2018) has been created and endorsed by The Association of Authors’ Agents, The Booksellers Association, The Publishers Association and The Society of Authors.

Download the Industry Commitment to Professional Behaviour in Bookselling and Publishing.

The Principles laid out in the Industry Commitment to Professional Behaviour in Bookselling and Publishing are:

  1. We in the books industry support creative expression and freedom of speech. However, our creative realm is also a professional one and we expect high standards of behaviour from everyone we encounter in the course of our work, including colleagues and customers.
  2. We will protect the passion, imagination and creativity of everyone in the books industry. We will celebrate and promote diversity and inclusion so that all voices can be heard.
  3. We will recognise our influence and make a commitment to work together to prevent abuse of power, creating a work environment free of discrimination, harassment including sexual harassment, bullying and intimidation.
  4. We will ensure that everyone in our industry is treated with dignity and respect so that individuals are supported and able to speak out.

Emma House, Deputy CEO of the Publishers Association, said:

“A document like this can’t ever be the whole answer, but we hope that it will be an important part of surfacing these issues, encouraging conversations and helping people feel confident that their industry is one that takes their dignity at work very seriously. Our intention is that the commitment is meaningful, helpful and makes people feel seen and supported. We also hope that businesses will use it alongside any existing policies they have or to help develop these if they don’t have them. We want to thank everyone who has fed into the process of developing the commitment, commented and shared their experiences.”