They have a little list

Jun 2nd, 2022 | By Ophelia Benson
Category: Notes and Comment Blog

Simon Edge tells us that the publishing industry is full of horrible little censors. Little in mind, regardless of stature.

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

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) June 2, 2022

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.

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) June 2, 2022

He and Stock and Joyce and Shrier and Bindel all found publishers who would ignore the tiny-minded ones, but they still deal with retail staff who hide the books and rebuke customers who want to buy 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://t.co/xRCHucTViS

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) June 2, 2022

(Off topic – All those shiny buildings? They’re all brand new. That part of the city used to be low-rise, drab, quiet, uninteresting, a neglected edge of downtown.)

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://t.co/SmpoKagO86

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) June 2, 2022

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.

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) June 2, 2022

We know what’s next.

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.

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) June 2, 2022

But if the custom is to yell and cheer and scream, a bizarre silence is itself any unpleasantness. Very unpleasant indeed if you ask me.

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. pic.twitter.com/yFhwRXJ1NJ

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) June 2, 2022

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.

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) June 2, 2022

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) pic.twitter.com/rHCutTPEG1

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) June 2, 2022

And now another ratchet. You thought it couldn’t get worse? Ha.

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 pic.twitter.com/qoZyWgXkac

— Simon Edge (@simonjedge) June 2, 2022

A blacklist. Very progressive.

4 Responses to “They have a little list”

#1
Papito
June 2, 2022 at 6:37 am

I think it would be nice to include links to purchase these books every time we bring them up. For example:

https://www.amazon.com/End-World-Flat-Simon-Edge/dp/178563240X

Give Terfazon some love. I just did.

Also, should we call these nonbindary activists, since their purpose is to ban books?
#2
Jim Baerg
June 2, 2022 at 10:28 am

A rather different issue but the author of this talks about similar dishonesty from decades ago.

https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2022/05/who-killed-nuclear-energy-and-how-to-revive-it/

See the section “Soft Eugenics against hard energy”

There is also an interview with the author here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmeX3eZlS9o
#3
Artymorty
June 2, 2022 at 1:23 pm

(Off topic – All those shiny buildings? They’re all brand new. That part of the city used to be low-rise, drab, quiet, uninteresting, a neglected edge of downtown.)

Ooh, interesting. I’ll have to do some virtual exploring via Google Earth.
#4
Ophelia Benson
June 2, 2022 at 3:19 pm

It’s really staggering how much it’s changed in the last 15 to 20 years. South Lake Union is not far from the downtown core but it too was low-rise & drab & sleepy, and then [what felt like] overnight it became Tech Mecca, full of Amazon & Google & I don’t even know what else. Everything between there and the waterfront is now giant gleaming glass towers like the ones in the photo above.