Looks like Joanne Harris is facing a vote

I went on their website yesterday and was surprised to see a form for people who want to rejoin. I wonder how many of us there are and whether that was always there.

I wonder if her more recent books have been less lucrative. Even seemingly successful authors don’t always make that much and it was a while back. I believe she has a trans child and now has she/they pronouns in her twitter bio herself.

Not classy, though. Giving the impression of 'struggling artist' to get money from people with nowhere near as much as her.

I am thinking of various snipes along the 'identifies as' mindset...

Because she'll be seeing them as love tokens. She wants to be admired, which, incidentally, is another reason why she's susceptible to gender identity ideology.

I always wondered about the Kofi asks. She is a multi, multi million-selling author whose best known book has been made into a successful film. Google (admittedly not gospel) estimates her net worth at 8m dollars. Why is she e-begging for fivers on Twitter?

It ends in January I think so I’m thinking she’ll last it out. I only followed her because of her position in the SOA but gave up because of the cringey (as my teenagers would say) tweets and little stories asking for kofi donations. I know that makes me an awful person because you do what you’ve got to do. But anyway.

Well let's hope this is the end of her reign. That Salman Rushdie tweet was disgusting and she's not fit to hold the post.

I'm not casting aspersions on aspiring authors, of course. All authors have been such at one point!

But by removing the requirement to be published (presumably in order to bump up the membership fee income) they became the Society of Anyone, which is meaningless.

I left the SoA over this, which was very sad as I waited years to join and was so proud when I made it.

I’m not even shocked by that e-mail title. There seems to be a particularly vicious clique at the heart of the SoA and as far as I know, they’re all highly successful, big-name authors so allowing aspiring authors in probably isn’t significant to this.

I don’t disagree, and I’m an aspiring author who has not joined. What I would say is that some aspiring authors on the periphery pay attention to this stuff and it’s not a good look!

They lost all credibility when they opened membership up to 'aspiring authors' - i.e. anyone.

That is vile. I'm an author. Really glad I never bothered to join them. What a bunch of bullies.

I believe so. She says she did a DSAR and publishes details of the emails she was sent.

Not on twitter/X, did Rachel do a SAR?

Resurrecting this but Society of Authors again are looking pretty awful. Reading Rachel Rooney’s recent tweets about this - she has a new account - and the internal emails they allegedly sent about her are terrible. Email apparently titled ‘wrapping up Rachel Rooney for Christmas.’

It seemed that Terence Blacker had thought it was all a bit of a silly playground spat up until it actually affected him though. When he says 'for most of us, it was all rather confusing,' I got the impression he means 'for most of us men, who have never taken much notice of all those women getting het up about something I think is rather insignificant.'

I agree with this to an extent, but I also think that a lot of people are very confused and misled on the issues (not just as an SOA thing but generally). Genderists will blatantly lie and DARVO that a small group of nasty transphobes who hate trans people want to bully and victimise anyone who doesn't agree with them, and are using "freedom of expression" as a cover – and they are backed up by the chair of the SOA herself, plus genderism is affecting the NHS, school, governments etc - despite consistently falling foul of the law when tested. I can see how a reasonable person would either think it's a silly scrap about nothing much, or believe the line that it's just a bunch of mean old bigots trying to persecute people. You have to have critical thinking and reasoning ability to really interrogate what it's all about and see that freedom of expression is actually at risk – and not just any freedom of expression, but freedom to speak the truth.

Thanks for sharing Arabella. That's an interesting read, and it's oddly satisfying to discover that someone who is what might be called a dispassionate observer in all this has come to the same conclusion I (not dispassionate) have - that the SoA has become a self-congratulatory support group for authors who think in the approved way.

It seemed that Terence Blacker had thought it was all a bit of a silly playground spat up until it actually affected him though. When he says 'for most of us, it was all rather confusing,' I got the impression he means 'for most of us men, who have never taken much notice of all those women getting het up about something I think is rather insignificant.'

But I'm glad to have his perspective and there must be many other people who feel the same, and who will read that piece and follow his lead.

an interesting description of how the culture at the SoA has changed.

Thanks, Arabella - a great piece. As so often, the SoA should feel ashamed.

terenceblacker.com/play-nicely-children-said-the-society-of-authors-they-didnt/

I attended the AGM to vote, but I think I'll now be cancelling my direct debit, citing Tim Tate's letter. And I will be waiting with bated breath for news about the complainants' SARs...

Ouch. I've been listening to the Blocked and Reported podcast and the YA writing world features frequently. It's been a bit of an eye opener.

They might attempt it, but I love the way he has given guidance about the next step he thinks the complainants should take in his resignation letter! I think they may find they have picked on the wrong person here.

Cripes. Sounds like a horrible environment, all round.

I think I can hear the sound of many SARs being typed up as we speak.

I'm sorry if that sounded harsh, wasn't intended. It's something I'm constantly having to reckon with myself in my own work. So far I've been able to navigate it but I don't know how long that will continue.