Some of you will be pleased to hear that we are currently planning the bookcareers.com salary survey 2012. In this survey we analyse the salaries of UK book and journal publishing and literary agents. We are unique in that we gather information from you – the people on the ground doing the jobs – instead of asking the Human Resources Directors what they think they are paying you.
There have been several reasons for the long gap in between surveys, two of which are:-
1. Between 2008 and 2011 so many companies had ‘pay freezes’ (we know some still do) and we know from many conversations that salaries did not change much in that period.
2. We now need to take into account digital book publishing and find a way to incorporate this into the survey without losing the feel or sight of print book and journal publishing.
One of the things we want to do in the Salary Survey 2012 is incorporate some new questions, so that we can identify from the results the major areas of concern about salaries and rewards in book publishing. These include new questions about whether you did work experience, may have a second job, or a private income, a mortgage, or are renting. We also intend to look more closely at career paths and choices.
We are now asking you to contribute to the questions. So if you feel that there is a burning question that must be asked on this survey, aside from the points we have mentioned above (and the bog-standard how much do you get paid/size of company/location/ethnicity etc.) please either comment below or email us. You have until 28th February before we finalise the survey.
We are also looking for 6 volunteer testers, who are already employed in full time jobs in publishing to help test the questionnaire before it goes live. Again, please email us if you’d like to be considered for this.
Many thanks for your help.