Penguin Random House UK’s chief executive warned that the book industry will “become irrelevant” if it doesn’t publish more diverse books, the Guardian reports.

“We feel very strongly about diversity in publishing,” said Tom Weldon, the chief executive, to a crowd of fifty writers gathered in London for Penguin Random House’s #WriteNow diversity initiative intended to discover and mentor authors from the UK’s underrepresented communities, including writers who are working-class; LGBTQ; Black, Asian, or minority ethnic (BAME); or writers with disabilities. “For me, it is a real problem when we don’t reflect the society we live in. It’s not good for books, or culture, or commercially. We are going to become irrelevant. We know we have a real issue, and we have been slow. We have to address it.”

A panel of editors had chosen the fifty authors from a pool of more than 1,000; these writers met with editors and were given one-on-one feedback on their work. Penguin Random House is now accepting applications for the next #WriteNow events, which will take place in Birmingham on November 26 and Manchester on February 4.

Penguin Random House isn’t the only publisher trying to address the lack of diversity in the books industry. Children’s publisher Nosy Crow has an open call for submissions from BAME writers; and Hachette UK imprint Weidenfeld & Nicolson is looking for “new voices from regions that are underrepresented in the UK book market” to contribute to its Hometown Tales project.

Related reading: Paul McVay has won the Polari First Book Prize—an LGBT writing prize—for his novel The Good Son; and Katie O’Reilly talks with Garth Greenwell about “our job” as writers “to make queerness more inclusive... to write in a way... that’s universal, that’s for everyone.”

Photo Credit: Penguin Random House