Yet another woman - a writer - sacked after TRA campaign.

[WildishBambino]

Having seen Hachette and the Blair Partnership stand up for JKR, I had some hope for the publishing industry.

There's a series of children's books called The Warrior Cats. Proper children's books, aimed at the 8-12 age range, and not part of YA fiction. Published by Harper Collins, but put together by Working Partners.

The books are written by 'Erin Hunter' which is collective pseudonym for a bunch of female writers. One of which was a Scottish writer Gillian Philip.

When JKR was attacked, Philip changed her twitter handle to include a message of support. This attracted the ire of the TRAs and also it appears the Furries (because of the anthropomorphic cats I assume). She received a huge amount of sexualised abuse via Twitter, which she just retweeted and said 'Bring it on homophobes and lesbian-haters'.

Her twitter feed is now gone, but you can view a cache <a class="break-all" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Qisq_6YhRvwJ:twitter.com/Gillian_Philip+&cd=8&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-b-d" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here

As she wouldn't recant, the TRAs facilitated a mass spamming of complaints to her employer Working Partners.

Within 24 hours James Noble is the managing editor at Working Partners personally emailed complainants to say she was sacked.

This really doesn't seem to have been picked up by the media, presumably because it involves a children's author far less well-known than JKR. But it shows what happens to women who step out of line when they aren't too big to cancel.

Roseburn Thanks.I can't find it still though,do the rankings show just when you purchase?I hadn't checked when I bought the ebook.

Queen Hope you are OK?That's awful,what will happen now for you?

Oncewasblueandyellow thank you. I have no idea what will happen next. I publish with independent presses and my publishers have so far been supportive but if the thumbscrews are applied I don't know what will happen. I left twitter before I was 'cancelled' so I think that the mob are less inclined to go after me but I am not complacent. I have lost friends and supporters and readers and gained a reputation as a bigot, so that's fun.

I can't be silent, though. I don't really understand what is the point of being a writer if you can't think for yourself and don't think people should be allowed to write what they want. I've lost respect for many, many writers who I thought were great until all this went down.

queenofknives that’s awful! You just have to hope people will come round eventually and realise they treated you like shit.

Is there a reason they only have her surname on the amazon page?

queen

Madness that you have to talk to your publishers because you have been "cancelled", I can't imagine what that must feel like but thinking about it makes my stomach turn.Maybe being off twitter before will make a difference,they are rabid on there.

[Flowers]

Thanks JKRisagryff and oncewas

I think by the time people come around and see what's going on, they may have dug themselves in too deep. There are some writers who talk privately about these issues and feel frustrated with it all, and even some who speak out, but they're in the minority and it's really only men who can speak up without getting the backlash.

I do think one of the aims of TRAs is to get outspoken women off twitter as for most of us that's our only significant platform. I decided I'd rather give that up than risk losing my day job but obviously that could still happen too!

I am really hoping that Gillian Philip is getting loads of support and that her books are flying off the shelves :)

Bought and downloaded onto my Kindle. We're all behind you Gillian!

What rank is it in the charts now?

I can't be silent, though. I don't really understand what is the point of being a writer if you can't think for yourself and don't think people should be allowed to write what they want. I've lost respect for many, many writers who I thought were great until all this went down.

I’m also a not-famous writer. Having finally taken my first steps into this industry in the past three years, I now have a platform from which taking it to the next level (earning enough from writing to call it a career, rather than a reasonably well paid hobby) ought to be possible.

Instead, I have been speaking out on Twitter, in the full knowledge that this will quite possibly mean the end of a dream I’d been working towards for years. I’m lucky I have another career.

I agree, to an extent, that the other Erins have failed to stand up for Gillian and that’s sad. But if you earned a lot from Warriors and had a mortgage based on the expectations of continued writing of that series, or indeed were employed directly by Working Partners and owed them a great deal, then stepping out of line would be very tough. I suspect I would have made no comment at all, but I’m not sure whether I would be able to take the massive step of walking away.

Note as well that those are rainbow flags, not trans flags. Perhaps internally that is all the rebellion they can manage right now. Pretty sure some of them will be gender critical, but still too afraid of the consequences.

I went ahead and bought the Kindle version of her book too. Always happy to support female writers anyway and I hope she gets a boost from seeing her book climb the charts.

#2,695 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#11 in Law & Crime Thrillers for Young Adults
#6 in Children's Mysteries & Detectives eBooks
#25 in Children's Science Fiction & Mystery

Note as well that those are rainbow flags, not trans flags.

Thanks AnyOldPrion - I realised after I’d posted 🤦‍♀️ but no edit function.

If the motivations of the other Erins to post was to ‘do it to Julia’ I think it’s so sad that women now have to offer up such appeasements to keep their careers, etc.

I can undserstand why the other Erins had to protect themselves, but they could have done that by simply not commenting.

I’ve bought it from Waterstones - a couple of weeks for delivery but that’s fine. I think its good for publishers to see there is pent up demand even when out of stock

I’m a scaredy-cat and not very vocal on this topic, but this cancelling and ruining people’s livelihoods is appalling. What on earth happened to free speech!

if you need us to buy your books let us know... in the meanwhile have ordered Gillian Philip's Bad Faith and The Opposite of Amber and will work my way through her back catalogue as I get money.

that was me to Oncewasbleandyellow....

AnyOldPrion and Quuenofknives
Haven't got much to add, but thanks for posting here.

Yes it would be interesting if Toby Young would do an AMA about free speech union. I think free speech union is a good initiative, even though that doesn't mean I agree with TY on many things, and in the past he's acted like a prat to say the least.

Anyoldprion, hi :) wonder if we know each other in real life or on twitter!

I do think a lot of writers are just too scared to speak up because it really does seem to put an instant end to your career. But there are also a LOT of writers who have made a career out of being super-woke and others who have put hard work into cancelling their colleagues and trying to get their books unpublished and so on. It has been quite vicious for quite some years. I don't think there's much community left online. Still, it must be gutting to have the other Erins not support you - after writing and plotting and creating together, you would hope your colleagues would stand with you in some way. But maybe there was nothing they could do, I don't know.

There are also quite a few writers who aren't on social media and seem to fly under the radar in terms of their views. Zadie Smith is one such. She discussed trans in an essay a few years ago, and also wrote a great article recently about identity politics and fiction. www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/10/24/zadie-smith-in-defense-of-fiction/

As for buying books, maybe we need a thread of 'banned' books and dissident writers and see what gets posted :) I think I will also get in touch with Wild Women Writers network.

On the subject of GC writers, another shout out for the amazing Jane Harris, historical author of The Observations, Gillespie and I, and Sugar Money, who is on twitter as @blablafishcakes and is utterly fearless and fabulous.

Gillian Philip is one of the signatories to the Wild Womens Writers Club letter to the Booker Board, along with some other very well known names.

I've not heard of her or her books, but I will be ordering them for my daughter. I can't stand bullies, or pathetic spineless publishers.

The DM are reporting on this today. It's good that is being returned in the popular press.

Article on the daily mail site today:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8490821/Best-selling-childrens-author-sacked-posting-hashtag-stand-JK-Rowling-Twitter.html?fbclid=IwAR1VulF1KLpQKajRcraBU7Bs4t-sxfxqg5mWgo8IOR7vZgagaCRzAnDoo7k

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8490821/amp/Best-selling-childrens-author-sacked-posting-hashtag-stand-JK-Rowling-Twitter.html?__twitter_impression=true
Best-selling children's author Gillian Phillip is sacked - after adding hashtag 'I stand with JK Rowling' to her Twitter handle amid bitter row over transgender rights