Thread by @simonjedge

Can we talk about the McCarthyite censors who this week tried to tighten their hold on the publishing industry? The climate of fear and intimidation has been there so long that it seems like a fact of life, but it's a shocking state of affairs and it needs publicising more widely

As many of us have long reported, a significant number of highly motivated gender ideologues work for the biggest publishers and retailers. They wield power like little generals in Mao's Cultural Revolution. This has a big effect on the books their employers publish and sell.

Young editors and agents who don't agree with the ideologues, or want to champion work that may offend the new Guardians of Culture, have learned to keep their heads down in order not to scupper their own careers.

For some authors, there are ways through. @Docstockk, @HJoyceGender, @AbigailShrier, @bindelj and I all found publishers who defied the censors. The commercial success of our books shows that our publishers were right to prioritise the wishes of readers over censorious staff.

We have, of course, faced the absurdity of individual retail staff – in the midst of a high street crisis – who turn customers away if they ask for Kath or Helen's books, effectively saying 'f*** off and buy it on the internet'. (Not all retailers, but there are enough examples)

In that context, Amazon has been a lifeline. You can rightly despise Jeff Bezos' employment policies and the effect his company has had on retail in general, but at least Amazon sells every book. It has been the vital route bringing our books to the people who want to read them.

This hasn't gone unnoticed by the alphabet Stasi. The latest protest by a clutch of tantruming Amazon staffers looks tiny, insignificant and absurd. I hope it is. But this blue-tick journalist is determined to amplify it:

https://twitter.com/_katya_long/status/1532062593304580096?s=20&t=tYKalYORQlGyrVlbSz7YTw

Also, Kath, Helen, Julie, Abigail and I have been fortunate in that we were relative outsiders when we published. For those inside the tent who depended on the sale of books for their living, especially children's authors, the situation has been appalling.

Take @Gillian_Philip, who had her career wrecked in the same week her husband died, for the 'crime' of adding the hashtag #IStandwithJKRowling to her Twitter account. She is now suing her publishers HarperCollins and WorkingPartners
crowdjustice.com/case/gillian-p…

Or @RooneyRachel, whose successful career writing books for very small children was utterly destroyed by a campaign of bullying. This brilliant thread by @blablafishcakes tells the whole story

https://twitter.com/blablafishcakes/status/1531037527993360384?s=20&t=tYKalYORQlGyrVlbSz7YTw

NB The vilest and most defamatory charge against Rachel was that her most recent book was published by a 'hate group'. The great news today is that @cwknews, founder of @Transgendertrd, has been awarded the BEM for services to children. Hate group my arse.

https://twitter.com/RooneyRachel/status/1532275377435025409?s=20&t=tYKalYORQlGyrVlbSz7YTw

And of course there's @jk_rowling. Wonderful Joanne entered this debate knowing she was too big to be destroyed, but the hate directed at her has been chilling. And it's not just from mad troons on the internet, as anyone who was at the British Book Awards last week will know.

The Oscars of the book industry is a big boozy event where all the big publishers take tables. There's a lot of cheering for every book and it's very tribal. Each publisher competes to cheer the loudest for their own book.

JKR's The Christmas Pig was nominated for Children's Fiction Book of the Year, but when her nomination was read out, a silence fell (apart from the odd loud cheerer like me). As far as I could tell, not even her publisher's table – @HachetteKids – made any noise.

Is that because everyone attending the event from @HachetteKids also hates the work of their biggest selling author? Maybe, but I think it's unlikely. More probably, they were too scared to cheer. Easier just to pipe down and avoid any unpleasantness on their big night out.

They may well have been aware – and this is the crux of this thread – that some of the biggest McCarthyites WERE IN THE ROOM. The woman who calls herself the 'best connected person in book publishing' and has led the assault on Rachel was at a table in the middle

There's also an organisation called the @Soc_of_Authors, which is meant to stand up for its members' interests. You might think they'd speak out in defence of ALL authors in order to attract more members. But they haven't said a word in Rachel or Gillian's defence.

Here's what Rachel (a Society of Authors member) has said about their lack of support.

https://twitter.com/RooneyRachel/status/1531607240792326146?s=20&t=WVnuYCbFbugMTM03A-D_-g

To those of us in the industry, this is not surprising. The chair of the Society of Authors is Joanne Harris OBE, who has never looked back since her third novel Chocolat became the #1 Sunday Times bestseller and was turned into a multi-Oscar-nominated movie.

Joanne ('she/they'), who has nearly 100k followers on here, is a strident censor. She blocks furiously. I'm blocked. So is Rachel. Here's how @NickCohen4 reported Joanne's response to the vicious death threats issued to JK Rowling

Joanne's response to Nick was to point out that she didn't mention JKR by name in that tweet. (That's Joanne's way: subtweet in the middle of a furore so that everyone following the controversy knows who you mean, but a couple of years later it looks harmless)

And here she is, coldly and loftily swatting Rachel away. NB this is a massively successful, internationally feted novelist dismissing an autistic author who has been subjected to a vicious character assassination by authors whom Joanne *doesn't* block

The news this week is that a self-styled support group for trans/NB publishing staff is compiling a blacklist. It includes people in the industry who like, retweet or follow accounts the group deems heretical. They offer the list to anyone who wants it.

https://twitter.com/LoobyLouDino/status/1531965355224182785?s=20&t=z6b-s6oOSZwYJg-g3fjWhg

They only started tweeting three weeks ago and so far have 426 followers. Here's a literary agency and a senior manager at Penguin openly applauding the creation of the blacklist

And here's the best connected person in publishing saying 'all power to you'. This was before they announced the creation of their blacklist but I'm not aware that Sam has reined in her support. (If I'm wrong, I'll be delighted.)

How far is this going to go? Will it fizzle out as people recognise these McCarthyites for who they are, or will the support of virtue-signalling industry players allow the blacklist to grow? Don't expect the Society of Authors or its chair to condemn it.

My own view is that this lunacy won’t survive for long. Braver – mainly independent – publishers will publish the books shunned by the big players, they’ll make money, and the beancounters in the big houses will sound the alarm.

But in the short term, careers are still being destroyed and reputations are being trashed. It’s hard for people in the industry to speak out but it needs light shining in.

Could journos such as @jobartosch, @andrewdoyle_com, @jameskirkup or @ewansomerville cover it from the outside? It's a story that I'm sure the reading public would love to here and I hope there's plenty above to get your teeth into. 🙏

*HEAR*

Oh, and if you want to send @RooneyRachel some love and celebrate @cwknews’ good news, buy My Body Is Me and give it to a small friend or relative

transgendertrend.com/product/my-bod…