Time to Come Together

Why SEEN in Publishing can help defeat the Tyranny of the Minority

‘Fiver to the first person to leak the membership list of these nazi c*nts’.

And so it began. An outpouring of vitriol to the soundtrack of grenades being lobbed out of prams, and all because of one little tweet from The Bookseller posted as part of its daily roundup of news:

It was like the gates of Hades had been opened. To give you a flavour of how unhinged the responses were, here’s a select few of them. All but the first of this tiny sample came from agents and editors:

It’s bad enough that authors whose only ‘crime’ is to have vocalised views that sex is real and that it matters, and who’ve spent months – even years – pouring their hearts into their craft, will see these tweets and know their submission will be discarded regardless of its merit or whether it fits within that agent or publisher’s catalogue, but imagine what it’s like working with these people. The pressure to conform must be intolerable, as must the fear of giving away so much as a whiff of a private thought that runs contrary to the accepted group think. All this under the mantra of diversity and inclusion (the number of tweets shouting that anyone involved with or following SEEN in Publishing will be blocked for hate because of a need for kindness and inclusion was breathtaking). But what – and who – is the driving force of all this bile and intolerance? 

The answer to this starts with a Sunday Times opinion piece written this weekend by author and columnist Matthew Syed, in which he said:

‘We live in a world of increasing moral activism; a world where unrepresentative minorities are ever more determined to get their way.’

The piece was written in response to JK Rowling’s blistering op-ed in The Times criticising Labour’s stance on women’s rights and trans issues, and accusing Keir Starmer of turning his back on women.

In a few short weeks, we are near-certain to be living under a Labour government led by Sir Flip Flop himself, a man who only recently found the courage to agree with basic biology – that men have penises and women have vaginas – because a man, in this case Tony Blair, said it first. As Matthew Syed pointed out, Starmer and much of his wannabe cabinet buckle to whatever fashionable cause is currently trending on social media, and it’s this buckling that emboldens the activists in the same way that junior staff in publishing houses have been enabled to wield power, because those who should know better – the people who are senior to and actually employ the activists – have been too frightened to say no to their demands… or have drunk the Kool Aid themselves.

‘Let us at least acknowledge this for what it is: the tyranny of the minority. And here’s the thing: this kind of activism feeds on moral cowardice, gains strength from institutional pusillanimity, gorges on the weakness of those who bend and buckle.’

The Tyranny of the Minority. This is the operative word – minority. And it’s a minority of people in publishing who are turning the industry into a cowering mess where even the bravest of authors think twice before giving an honest opinion. And guess what? The agitators for all the activists’ pet causes are, in the main, all the same people.

Earlier this year, two groups of authors forced the Society of Authors to hold an EGM for members to vote on two resolutions. There were three resolutions in the end, but these two were the ones forced on members: a resolution on ending fossil fuel investment in the book industry and a resolution on a proposed SoA statement on Gaza. There was a surprisingly high crossover between the proposers of both these resolutions – only two people who signed the former failed to sign the latter. There was a surprisingly high crossover, too, with those who signed Fossil Free Books’ demand that asset manager Ballie Gifford divest from all investment in fossil fuels and anything to do with Israel (and who then professed innocence when Ballie Gifford pulled all its generous funding from all the book festivals it supported. Yay. Well done Fossil Free Books. Your campaign worked better than in your wildest dreams… except it didn’t. Ballie Gifford hasn’t made a single change to its investments but the literary world is a whole lot poorer).

Another thing that’s common amongst the signatories in all the above, is the number who like to proclaim their pronouns at every available opportunity and shout the words ‘bigot’, ‘fascist’ and ‘nazi’ at anyone (but generally women) who dares vocalise concerns about the erosion of women’s single sex spaces and child safeguarding caused by the relentless march of transgender ideology in society. Not all the signatories of course, but enough to know that within publishing is a hardcore of authors, editors, agents et al for whom activism comes as naturally as breathing, and it was many of these same people shouting the loudest about the new SEEN in Publishing network. These people love nothing more than pointing a denigrating finger at the unvirtuous and demanding their cancellation whilst simultaneously polishing the halo of their moral certainty. This hardcore are the minority – we’re talking of a few hundred people – but the tactics they employ have been so effective that to speak against their pet causes, however innocuously, can be the death of a career. Is it any wonder so many in publishing feel compelled to conform and be seen conforming? I can perfectly envisage this hardcore bunch rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of Sir Flip Flop and his band of Merry #BeKinds coming into power, knowing they will, at worst, shy away from any fight with them. At best, from the hardcore activists perspective, Labour will enable them.

And this is why Seen In Publishing is such a welcome and necessary thing, and why I urge everyone in publishing who hasn’t drunk the gender ideology Kool Aid, whatever their role or position, to join. Finally, we have a space where we can come together to speak freely in assured confidence and act as a support network for each other. By coming together, we can push back to ensure our voices are heard and taken into consideration within publishing, and foster a new culture where reasoned debate on any subject is possible without bullying and victimisation, and the cloak of anonymity, currently so necessary to so many of us, can be discarded.

If you’ve read this post and are longing to join, but work for a publishing house seeped in the ideology and/or have colleagues seeped in it, then please put your fears aside – there is a vigorous screening process and membership is entirely confidential. 

Please. Join us.

For more information, please go to SEEN in Publishing’s Substack:

You can also find them on twitter https://twitter.com/SEENPublishing and LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/seen-in-publishing/posts/?feedView=all.

To contact them directly re membership, email SEENinPublishing@gmail.com