‘Women’s publishing: An evolution, a revolution’: an SYP event

This post was written by guest contributor, Hannah Robinson. Thank you, Hannah! 

About thirty of us, some students, some professionals in publishing attended the event hosted by the Society of Young Publishers about ‘women’s publishing.’ The event began, once everyone was settled in their seats with a drink, with questions from a member of the SYP and then opened to questions from the audience.

The panel consisted of Lennie Goodings, a publisher at Virago Press; Rachel Faulkner-Willcocks, a commissioning editor at Avon; Sam Eades the editorial director at Trapeze; and Jacquelyn Guderley the founder and CEO of literary magazine Salomé.

The event was live tweeted and you can find those under the hashtag ‘#sypwip.’ Some of my favourite words of wisdom came from Sam, who urged the audience to not wait for submission but actively seek out new voices in response to a question on how to push for more diversity in publishing. The panel also agreed, with whole-hearted support from the attendees, that everyone has a duty to call out sexist behaviours; inspired by a question about that Sylvia Plath cover.

Concerning a question on the industry’s use of ‘women’s fiction’ the panel made good points; that it’s a catch-all for anything of interest to women, and that there’s no such thing as ‘men’s fiction.’

I found the best piece of advice came from Lennie, take ourselves seriously, know our worth and believe in ourselves.

Twitters to follow:

SYP:
@SYP_UK

Lennie Goodings
@ViragoBooks

Jacquelyn Guderley
@salome_lit

Rachel Faulkner-Willcocks
@ReadWineRun

Sam Eades:
@SamEades

Image credit via SYP on Facebook.