Revolt at publisher Hachette re Rowling "transphobia"

A young booky U-tuber defending JKR - via Glinner...

What next - refusal to work on history books, art books, kids books that don't cover a range of sexualities in the 3 little pigs...?

DO YOUR JOB - its what you get paid for, and there are a lot of people in publishing that would give their right arm to work in a large house like that. Don't like it? - go and work for a charity or lobby group.

Rachel Rooney author of exquisite My Body is Me has recently left writing and twitter due to bullying from inside publishing
Another reason to be grateful to Hatchette for taking a stand.

Just asked my 15yr old if he’s heard of Juno Dawson and he hadn’t a clue who they are.

I think JKR’s massive success is due to her writing books that children wanted to read and not what the great and good thought children should be reading.
I was a child in the 1980s and there was a real trend for publishers to print gritty realism. I didn’t actually want that as I lived in crappy council house with unemployed parents - id already has enough gritty realism to last a lifetime. I read stuff like Mallory Towers (like all my friends)
Dawson is the same - publishers think children should be reading this stuff but it’s not what children want and is reflected in Dawson’s woeful sales record.

X post with Datun

The teenager in my family hasn't a bloody clue who Juno Dawson is

Ah, but does she want to have random affairs with married men in the suburbs?

Surely JK and Dawson aren't writing for the same audience.

Dawson's latest book was about teen girls having meaningless sex with a stream of married men from out of town.

Trans ideology has been taught in schools for years now.

And it's only recently that the CPS had to withdraw their trans toolkit.

Teaching children about Stonewall law, and not giving them a chance to realise its implications will become a thing of the past.

That way, our young people will be making up their own minds in future.

Oh I don't doubt JKR is safe - but what about anybody else with GC views?

Tricky times.

I instantly said did she used to be a man?

No ‘used to be’ about it.

Nah, JK Rowling and all her products are safe.
Have you ever been to universal studios and stood in the throbbing queues for the Harry Potter world rides , shops etc. It is packed, absolutely heaving.
Even in Disney world Harry Potter features in Epcot.
I have seen Juno Dawson on pointless. I didn't know who she was and I've only made the connection since someone else mentioned pointless upthread. I only remember her because she stood out as, err well, I can't think of any pc way to say it so I'll just leave it at that. Don't think she won anything only memorable because I instantly said did she used to be a man?
My dh and teenage dd had no clue as to who she was but agreed she was obviously transgender.

I’m not saying Juno Dawson is selling more books than JKR - that would be mad!

I am saying, given that JKR is no longer a children’s author solely - The Ickabog is a bit of an anomaly - given that Hachette get no money off Potter, given that the children’s division will have had loads of authors like JD and other prominent names potentially bending their editors and publicists ears via their agents about why their publisher is not being supportive, given all that they’ll be thinking about who in the future they need to be on side with in their careers and it’s probably not JKR.

We have one teenager and one twentysomething in the family locally, and neither are onboard with the TRA stuff despite this being a very progressive area. They'll both use the pronouns they're asked to when the person asking is around, and I suspect with some of their friends too, but the older one does the airquotes thing when he says "she" about transwomen and the younger one seems to be going out of her way to avoid people who're performatively queer positive. They're both very much into Black Lives Matter so it's not like they're not progressive in general either. I think there are probably a lot of younger people in that general headspace, wanting to be nice and knowing what they're supposed to do to be considered polite but not really buying it.

Publishing does seem to be one of the industries that's furthest down the rabbit hole, along with academia. Which feels like part of a general disconnect between what what you might loosely describe as the elite think the public cares about and what the public actually cares about.

Irene yes, adult publishing, particularly adult non-fiction, has a much different sensibility over things like this.

Hachette is opening new offices regionally (which is great!) but I really don’t think JKR is going to write more for children outside of the Harry Potter universe. Would you, if you were her? After this? I’d be very surprised. She’s got no need to, and she’s got another Strike novel out in the autumn.

Despite individual teens not having heard of Juno Dawson, and books not seeming borrowed in some libraries, she really has gained more influence and her sales are on an upward trend and she is winning awards and in demand for literary festivals and events and school visits. Read that Wild Women Writing article about the children’s author & the reaction within children’s publishing.

It’s all very worrying but as glad I am that JKR has opened it up to sunlight I am still a bit bloody pessimistic it hasn’t just cemented some younger people further into the good trans allies camp. Now, if a younger YA author with clout came out as gender critical perhaps that would help but I’m not holding my breath.

Things are changing all the time.

I wouldn't have thought 'The Art of being Normal' - a book crammed full of ridiculous stereotypes would ever be touted as a great teen book - and on school's book lists all over the country but it is.

This is a short-term victory for JKR but this is a battle that is going on and on and it does seem they have captured many of the 20s-30s. Massive kudos to JKR but as a mid-list writer what has happened to her has filled me with fear because I think they couldn't cancel her, but only because she's so big, but yeah, they might well cancel us.

Yes, The Ickabog is with Hachette. But it’s only being published because COVID & charity & existing relationship. She is mostly firmly adult crime now. Bloomsbury get the financial benefit from Potter, not Hachette. She’s not writing new kids books for anyone...

Maybe she will now they are developing the children's picture book line - in a new Edinburgh office.

Head office Hachette needs to defend JKR primarily because of her adult crime series. No one will be out of a job over this.

They are moving some jobs out of London - including to a new Edinburgh office.

Asked some family teenagers and their friends if they knew who Juno Dawson is. They've never heard of him.

My teen hasn’t. He sees it for what it is. Good lad.

That is really interesting, thanks NoSquirrels. It's easy to forget the fact that the younger generation have genuinely been brainwashed into believing all this, and that will have an implication on the industries who are marketing to them.

Is that you, Juno?

Interesting to hear your take on this, @NoSquirrels - back in the day I worked in non-fiction publishing and any campaigns to cancel authors based on their social media posts would have met with very short shrift.

Indeed, the wave of new atheism, Christians are stupid books by Christopher Hitchins, Richard Dawkins et al no doubt caused considerable upset to religious believers working at the publishing houses in question, but there is no way anyone would have complained, and if they had they would have been greeted with utter incredulity (but I guess the media world is much less sympathetic towards Christians and Muslims than it is to trans people).

The teenager in my family hasn't a bloody clue who Juno Dawson is. She does know who Rowling is though.