Revolt at publisher Hachette re Rowling "transphobia"

[Lamahaha]

Young staff members threatened a strike apparently:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8424029/JK-Rowling-publishers-revolt-Workers-publishing-house-Hachette-threaten-tools.html

My heart sank when I read that headline and the opening paragraphs, since I have professional "connections" to Hachette:

Publishing staff working on JK Rowling’s latest book threatened to down tools yesterday in protest at her views on gender.
...
Yesterday morning at publishing house Hachette, several of those involved in Miss Rowling’s new children’s book, The Ickabog, are said to have staged their own rebellion during a heated meeting. One source said: ‘Staff in the children’s department at Hachette announced they were no longer prepared to work on the book.

‘They said they were opposed to her comments and wanted to show support for the trans lobby. These staff are all very “woke”, mainly in their twenties and early thirties, and apparently it is an issue they feel very strongly about.’

But fortunately the grown-ups held up to the toys-out-of-the-pram tantrum:

Last night Hachette issued a statement backing Miss Rowling’s right to express herself. It said: ‘We are proud to publish JK Rowling’s children’s fairy tale The Ickabog. Freedom of speech is the cornerstone of publishing. We fundamentally believe that everyone has the right to express their own thoughts and beliefs. That’s why we never comment on our authors’ personal views and we respect our employees’ right to hold a different view.

‘We will never make our employees work on a book whose content they find upsetting for personal reasons, but we draw a distinction between that and refusing to work on a book because they disagree with an author’s views outside their writing, which runs contrary to our belief in free speech.’

I can't say how pleased and proud I am. Well done Hachette.

And I would have thought the most important thing would be someone who could do the job best. Rather than someone whose politics could conflict with their boss making money.

No, I get it Datun - it’s very ... tricky.

Right now - right this moment - someone like Juno Dawson has the potential in the future to make MORE money for a children’s imprint than JKR.

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...

If they lose e.g. award-winning Juno Dawson PLUS other children’s authors similarly inclined to make a principled stand, because that editor/publicist/sales person/whatever ‘stood up and was an ally’ those authors feel inclined to follow their tribal loyalty... they have a big divisional problem the JKR Ickabog profits (to charity!) won’t solve in 18 months’ time...

I’m not suggesting JD is particularly a player in this - just an example of one of their authors with a big reach who has skin in the game and relationships worth money...

yes, agree with nosquirrels here- its unlikely that the motivations of the 4/5 was nastiness, stupidity or even lack of business acumen. i also don't think they would be 21/fresh out of uni.

friends in publishing who feel strongly that jkr is a bigot, feel 'a line must be drawn', feel they cant keep publishing woody allen and jkr, feel that 'diversity' is more important than anything, are ex oxbridge mid-late 30s.

I've never heard the of Juno Dawsin, I have heard of JK Rowling.
I have never read the Harry Potter books but I'm more inclined now to watch the filns, read the books and when it's possible to and see the musical.

I assumed it was JKRs profits that would be going to charity. I assumed Hachette would still be taking their normal cut.

Juno Dawson isn't a big player at all. Their books are always pointedly ignored in my local library, no matter how prominently displayed. I doubt anyone's massively interested in reading 'This Book is Gay" when the author has said that being gay was a huge mistake and that all gay men want to be women

Now that's fucking offensive!

Fair enough, emily. But the next generation absolutely have heard of Juno and love her work (and sympathise with her opinion). She’s got much more of a current line in to teenagers now than JKR. Once upon a time JKR was a god to teenagers but she’s not writing for them now. Those teens have all grown up (and mostly turned on her ). So you can see why from a children’s publishing division POV they might want to ‘stand up for’ their other authors over JKR. Head office Hachette needs to defend JKR primarily because of her adult crime series. No one will be out of a job over this.

I think I saw Dawson on Pointless Celebrities recently. High levels of fame and influence indeed.

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

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).

Is that you, Juno?

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

@RuffleCrow

Is that you, Juno?

I'm beginning to wonder myself! ;) I also have never heard of JD. But as we authors do, to determine a book's popularity, I looked at the bestseller status on the books, compared to Rowling.

Here's a link to Amazon uk bestseller charts.

www.amazon.co.uk/charts/2020-06-14/mostread/fiction/index.html?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Harry Potter books occupy places 1 through 7 on the Most Read list, and one is on the Most Sold list. I assume that Most Read applies to Kindle Unlimited, which are borrowed for free and calculated according to number of pages read. That leads me to understand that
people are downloading the books for free on Kindle and reading the digital versions more than the paperbacks.
She still gets paid, of course!

JD's books are not in the top 20 of either list.
Looking at JD's other rankings, the books are in the 15000-40000 range. (The higher the number the better with 1 of course the top bestseller.)
Sorry, I'm not at all convinced. Rowling is way ahead and is far from over. She may not be woke but she is loved.

I say that as an avid reader who never got beyond the first Potter book, which I read with my daughter back in the day. So, not a fan by any means. But I admire her for cracking open children's literature.

She is the Enid Blyton of our age, and it's well noted that, in spite of her open racism that later became known, Enid's books are going through a revival and nobody is talking of banning her.

Any writer who can create magic for children through words will live forever.

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.

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.

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.

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 instantly said did she used to be a man?

No ‘used to be’ about it.

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

Tricky times.

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.

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?