Closing The Class Gap
Why networks and belonging are essential to breaking barriers by kate Birch and Millie Pritchett
Kate Birch is a children’s editor from the Midlands. She currently works at Macmillan Children’s Books, previously at Flying Eye Books (via Creative Access) and Hachette Children’s Group. She is passionate about making books for - and accessible to - every child, and is actively working to make the publishing industry a more inclusive, supportive space for working-class colleagues.
Millie Pritchett entered the publishing industry in February 2025 as a Communications Assistant for Macmillan Children's Books, following a history degree and a publishing master's in Manchester. Originally from the Midlands, her own love for reading started at her local library, making her passionate about children having access to books that spark their imagination.
In December, Kate and Millie co-founded and now co-chair Mind the Gap, a network dedicated to the advocacy, community, and development of working-class colleagues at Pan Macmillan.
In December 2025, we launched Mind the Gap, an employee network at Pan Macmillan for colleagues from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. We started at the company around the same time and instantly connected because of our Midlands accents (a rarity in publishing). We have similar working-class backgrounds and began to talk about the difficulties of getting into publishing when you don’t have financial support or family in the South.
The more we looked into it, the worse the disparity seemed to be. The Office of National Statistics revealed that the number of working-class creatives has halved since the 1970s, and there weren’t that many of us to begin with (16.4% fell to 7.9%). The Publishers Association's 2024 Workforce Report also highlighted the steep class imbalances that persist across the sector. Furthermore, the Sutton Trust found that only 10% of writers are from working-class backgrounds. The more this inequality grows, the more likely it is that the stories that get told are increasingly disconnected from the interests and experiences of working-class people.
In light of this, we decided to set up a company network in the hopes of creating a safe space at Pan Macmillan for working-class colleagues to connect with each other, have open discussions about the challenges we face and share resources. We hoped that, by creating dedicated support and network space, we could foster greater socio-economic diversity. During our first monthly meeting, the group had a discussion about the unwritten rules, language and hidden networks in publishing. The more we talked, the more things we had in common. Similar experiences with accent prejudice, not knowing how to behave on the first day in an office, choosing the wrong kinds of biscuits for an author meeting . . . These experiences on their own had been incredibly isolating. However, when shared within our group, it was exactly these experiences that brought us together. It was refreshing to know that we weren’t alone in our thinking, and we quickly realised how beneficial the network would be for us all, and perhaps even more so for future starters at the company.
“Similar experiences with accent prejudice, not knowing how to behave on the first day in an office, choosing the wrong kinds of biscuits for an author meeting . . .”
Since then, Mind the Gap have focused on creating visibility for the network at Pan Macmillan. Our big event this year came on Social Mobility Day (11th of June). Mind the Gap hosted our first company panel, chaired by our network sponsor and Group Communications Director & Global AI Lead Sara Lloyd. The panel included Abby Watson (Brand & Content Marketing Director at Audible), Claire Malcolm (Chief Executive of New Writing North), Dawn Burnett (Communications Director, Bluebird and previous chair of the HarperCollins Social Mobility Group) and Garrett Carr (author and Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen’s University Belfast). The event was well attended, and we have since had lots of positive feedback from people all across the business. On the panel, we discussed barriers to inclusion, de-centralising publishing and addressing the challenges that working-class creatives face. The conversation was open, powerful and incredibly cathartic.
“We're hoping that it will help people who might not have assumed or previous knowledge about the industry or office working and improve staff retention.”
This event was followed in the evening by the first ever industry-wide social for working-class colleagues, which took place at The Smithson (Pan Macmillan’s offices) from 6-9pm. We organised the event with the chairs from Hachette, Penguin Random House and HarperCollins and the event was open to anyone working in publishing who identifies as being from a lower socio-economic background. We had an excellent turnout (despite the rain!) and celebrated with refreshments, nibbles and lots of free books. The event has widened our community, and we look forward to the next cross-industry event!
Looking forward, we’d like to focus on the recruitment and retention of more working-class colleagues. This includes setting up our Same Page scheme, a buddy system for new starters at Pan Macmillan so they can connect with a Mind the Gap member before their first day. New starters, especially those without someone in their lives to offer first-day advice, might have questions about joining the company that they don't feel comfortable asking their team or line manager. This relationship will allow new colleagues to connect with someone they might feel more comfortable with, enabling them to ask questions about the company, industry or even living in London. We're hoping that it will help people who might not have assumed or previous knowledge about the industry or office working and improve staff retention.
We’re also in the process of putting together an online guide to publishing with the co-chairs of Hachette, Penguin Random House and HarperCollins. This will highlight the initiatives each company offers that might make it easier for working-class colleagues to onboard, including online work experience, regional offices or rent deposit schemes. There are many useful initiatives and schemes out there, and we’re hoping by creating a guide to them it will make it easier for more talented people to see publishing as a welcoming, diverse and viable industry.
