The chief executive of the UK’s largest publisher has warned that the books industry will “become irrelevant” if it continues to fail to reflect the society we live in.

Tom Weldon, chief executive of Penguin Random House UK, was speaking as the publisher launched a new scheme intended to discover and mentor authors from the UK’s under-represented communities, whether this means they are writers from a poorer backgrounds, from LGBTQ or BAME (black, Asian, minority ethnic) communities, or writers with a disability.

“We feel very strongly about diversity in publishing. 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,” said Weldon. “We know we have a real issue, and we have been slow. We have to address it.”

Penguin Random House’s #WriteNow initiative held its first event last weekend in London. More than 1,000 writers sent in work to be considered for the event, with 50 chosen by a panel of editors to attend. The chosen writers, whose work ranged from young adult fiction to science fiction, romance to satire, met editors and authors and were given one-to-one feedback on their work, as well as explanations of the publishing process. Applications are now open for another #WriteNow event in Birmingham on 26 November, with a Manchester event scheduled for 4 February 2017. Ten writers will then be chosen from the 150 who attend the three events, and will be mentored for the next year with the goal of eventual publication.

“It ties in to some of the conversation since Brexit. Whatever you think about the outcome of that vote, it was a very clear signal, not just to the publishing bubble, that voices are not being heard,” said Weldon. “People recognise it is a real issue. I don’t think we realised we had a problem 10-15 years ago, but now we do … When a publisher has a bestseller, it’s easy to [just keep publishing] what sold yesterday. [But] there are amazing writers out there who we aren’t commissioning. The whole industry needs to change.”

Penguin Random House is not alone in attempting to address what a report into diversity in the books industry described last year as “an old mono-culture” still prevailing in publishing. The Writing the Future study found that “the past 10 years of turbulent change affecting the UK book industry has had a negative impact on attempts to become more diverse” and that if the books world fails to become less homogenised, it “risks becoming a 20th-century throwback increasingly out of touch with a 21st-century world”.

Children’s publisher Nosy Crow has made an open call for submissions from BAME writers, HarperCollins imprint 4th Estate teamed up with the Guardian to launch a new short story prize for BAME writers, and Hachette UK imprint Weidenfeld & Nicolson is looking for “new voices from regions that are under-represented in the UK book market” to contribute to its Hometown Tales project.

Editorial consultant on the Weidenfeld initiative Simon Savidge has said that “there are so many voices – too many, some might say – that we are not hearing enough of” in publishing. “I come from a working-class northern family, brought up by my mother while she studied in Newcastle,” said Savidge. “The childhood and life I saw growing up I rarely see reflected well in the publishing world, let alone the stories of my friends who come from all sorts of complex, fantastic and varied backgrounds.”

The Writing the Future report found last year that the “best chance of publication” for a BAME writer was to write literary fiction addressing “racism, colonialism or post-colonialism, as if these were the primary concerns of all BAME people”.

Kit de Waal, debut author of the novel My Name Is Leon, was one of the authors who spoke at the #WriteNow event, and said that publishing more diverse authors “does not necessarily mean we are going to have a story about a tower block in Scunthorpe or farm holdings in the north.

“They might be writing crime or science fiction but their story is informed by their experience, so it’s going to have a different voice,” said De Waal, who last year launched a scholarship to enable a student from a disadvantaged background to study on the Birkbeck creative writing MA.

“We need stories that do represent Scunthorpe, [but] we can write what we like, the same way that white, middle-class men can write what they like, whether it’s about Haitian orphans or an embryo … It’s great if we write about our experiences, it means others will see their lives reflected on the shelves. But a courtesan in 15th-century Venice is great too.”

Weldon said he hoped to repeat #WriteNow, which is backed by writer development charities Spread the Word, Writing West Midlands and Commonword, next year, if it goes well.

But he remained clear that “if we are going to publish a broader range of writers we need to change the profile of our staff”. To that end, Penguin Random House no longer requires job applicants to have a degree, does not allow referrals for work experience, looks to finance those work experience candidates who live outside London, and pays the London living wage for interns. It has also launched “the Scheme”, which selects those interested in a marketing career based on potential, rather than experience (it received 1,200 applications for four positions).

“It’s a long-term commitment, not a change in a couple of years but in five to 10 years. We need to change the profile of our staff to have a better chance to commission and publish a broader range of writers,” said Weldon. Change was “not just the right thing to do, but it is in our commercial interest – we’re always looking for new readers, and we’re conscious that there’s an incredible talent pool we’re not accessing”.