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THE LEAD STORY HARASSMENT SURVEY
10.11.17
www.thebookseller.com
Sexual harassment reported by over half in trade survey
Publicists and booksellers most at risk
ust over half of the 388 respondents to The Bookseller’s survey on sexual harassment within the book industry said they have experienced harassment, with 54% of women and 34% of men stating that they had suffered abuse. Those reporting harassment are
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spread throughout the industry: booksellers, large and small publishers, agents, scouts, authors, events organisers and freelances. The experiences they disclose range from crude or demeaning language used about women in the workplace, or at work-related social events, to suggestive comments and unwanted touching and groping, inappropriate sexual advances, predatory approaches made under cover of professional contact and assault. Two respondents to the survey said that they had been raped. Where people have been harassed, it has often been carried out by more senior or high-status male colleagues, professional contacts, authors or clients, and the targets are often young, in junior roles, new in the workplace or working freelance. The risk of harassment also seems to be higher in certain roles; publicists, whose job often takes them on tour and puts them in close contact with authors outside an ostensibly professional setting, showed
I considered reporting [a sexual advance by a publisher] but felt too scared to do so and in an incredibly vulnerable position as a freelance. I was also overwhelmed by the rage, shame and fear I felt –Freelance
I was working in an entry level position and was groped at an office party by a very senior male colleague who was quite drunk. I completely froze. I never mentioned it to anyone, I didn’t think it was worth it because he was in control of my career –Editor
BY THE BOOKSELLER NEWS TEAM
higher-than-average experiences of work-related harassment, with 66% saying they had experienced it. One noted that, while incidents with authors were “few and far between [. . .] It’s sad to admit that some authors don’t know where to draw the line, and having had ‘author care’ drilled into us as the most important part of what we do, it’s very hard to say anything.” A high proportion of bookseller
respondents reported abuse, with 61% from the sector revealing harassment from customers in the shop, colleagues or visiting authors. “It seems if you are in the service industry, there is a mistake by male customers that your demeanour is an invitation. I have been propositioned multiple times, almost always by older men, while working,” said one. In an industry often structured
around social get-togethers, alcohol is often cited in incidents of harassment. Numerous respondents reported colleagues or industry contacts overstepping the mark in situations where work and social life was blurred. ”I feel as soon as people have had a few drinks at an industry event, anything goes,” said one. “Male colleagues exploit the fact that ours is a ‘relaxed’ industry,” noted another. Respondents frequently said that harassment seems to be tolerated or played down within some companies, particularly if senior individuals are involved. One publicist commented: “On multiple occasions I have been warned about notoriously lecherous male authors, journalists [or] senior publishing staff at launch events, meetings or parties, and told that their constant rudeness, patronising and predatory behaviour is ‘just part of the job’.” Another individual
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