Lee & Low Survey: Publishing Industry Takes Baby Steps Toward Improving Diversity

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For all the talk about increasing diversity in the publishing industry, there’s been little progress in the past four years, according to the latest Lee & Low diversity baseline survey. Out of the 8,644 publishing professionals who responded to the survey conducted last year, 72.5% are white, slightly down from 76% in 2019. 

Lee & Low Books, an independent children’s book publisher, first conducted the quadrennial survey in 2015 to create a benchmark measuring the industry’s workforce demographics. The publisher’s initiative was meant to address the lack of representation in the industry.

Researchers attributed the slight progress to two factors: a much larger participant pool since 2015 and an effect of hiring practices.

The survey was conducted between January 2023 and December 2023 among employees of about 200 companies of all sizes from across North America. Survey respondents represented review journals, university presses, literary agencies, and trade publishers, including the Big 5 (Penguin Random House, Hachette, Macmillan, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster).

Publishing Diversity Survey: Highlights

Some of the highlights of the survey:

• Biracial or multiracial respondents were the second largest group of respondents at 8.3%, jumping from 3% in 2019.

• 71.3% were cis women, making up the majority. It’s a slight decline from 74% in 2019. 68.7% identify as straight or heterosexual, down from 74% in 2019.

• The biggest improvement was in the percentage of disabled people in the industry, jumping from 11% in 2019 to 16.5% in 2023.

• The majority (30.9%) of publishing industry professionals fall in the 25-34 years old age bracket. This item was new, so there was no comparison from the previous survey.

• 78.7% of executives are white, down by 1.3% from 2019.

The researchers noted the incremental improvements but urged industry members to continue their work on improving diversity. “It’s imperative the publishing workforce continues to reflect the many lived experiences in North America. As gatekeepers, we decide what stories get published, which creators get the extra sales or marketing push, and which books get reviewed. Our industry greatly benefits from a diverse workforce to shape the voices and characters that will appeal to a wide audience,” according to the report.

Read the entire report:

Where is the Diversity in Publishing? The 2023 Diversity Baseline Survey Results

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