GC Agent Fired

[MondayYogurt]

The absolute thrill and power surge this TRA, Bethany Baptiste, must have felt in doing this.

twitter.com/storysorcery/status/1297708094122790918?s=21

Sorry if this is a dupe - I did search.

Why should she lock her account? They'd just use that as ammunition against her, and most likely put words in to her mouth.

Better to leave it out there for everyone to judge for themselves.

Anything to do with imagination, pretending, putting yourself into a different role, becoming another thing...well that's the natural home of TRAs.

True, but I thought writers would be among the foremost at defending free speech. Maybe naive of me.

Although any writer with even mildly GC views is keeping quiet if they want any kind of career. Only someone with the stature of JKR can afford to speak out.

Although any writer with even mildly GC views is keeping quiet if they want any kind of career.

Exactly this. The atmosphere is completely toxic. You are cancelled on the merest suspicion of being gc and no one will have anything to do with you. You will lose friends and be subject to any number of horrible campaigns and slander against you. You might as well forget trying to get published. And a lot of writers are very, very good at positioning themselves as the most woke and using this to sell books and even win awards. They will stamp down anyone who seems to be coming up. It is vicious. I'm honestly amazed anyone in publishing is willing to speak out at all.

Publishing's a snakepit.

I thought writers would be among the foremost at defending free speech

Yes, sort of. But they're also those most at risk of losing their livelihoods, which is usually precarious at best.

@yourhairiswinterfire

Why should she lock her account? They'd just use that as ammunition against her, and most likely put words in to her mouth.

Better to leave it out there for everyone to judge for themselves.

I just don't see why men get to hide but women have to be martyrs.

I just don't see why men get to hide but women have to be martyrs.

I know :( With women it's a full scale witch hunt, men get off lightly with the public backlash. Almost like people do recognise biological differences after all.

I get that misogyny never went away, but I'd never have believed that I'd see it being so publicly celebrated. Under the guise of progression too, ffs.

@Greenandcabbagelooking

If someone had been fired because they are trans, there would(rightly) have been outrage. This is exactly the same, and yet it is something that appears to be celebrated.

That was my first thought too. Apparently transpeople are discriminated against at work and fired left, right and centre just for being trans...so why is the evidence suggesting it’s women who understand the importance of biology in the fight for women’s rights who are actually losing their jobs?

Glad to see that she has lots of support on Twitter. Including quite a few trans people...

I've yet to encounter TRAs dominating the discourse on hiking, gardening, donkey rescue, bushcraft, or sailing

Not TRA led as far as I know but the Radio 4 Books programme recently did a special on queer nature writing. Obviously we have to write about ornithology through the lens of queerness now. It may be that they are pushing at an open door because of the literary wokerati at R4 but yes even birdwatching is queer now.

You are cancelled on the merest suspicion of being gc and no one will have anything to do with you. You will lose friends and be subject to any number of horrible campaigns and slander against you

I absolutely agree with this, but it's not even what I fear most. What I fear is the silent sidelining. The conversations in marketing meetings and closed acquisitions discussions where my next book is up for consideration, and looks pass across the table... 'not a name we want to be associated with' 'I'm not very comfortable with working with this author' 'I find her social media presence a bit problematic' 'I think we'll pass...'

There's always another manuscript from a more obedient writer. The real reasons would never even be given, but doors would silently close. This is my livelihood and I can't afford to lose it.

You are cancelled on the merest suspicion of being gc and no one will have anything to do with you. You will lose friends and be subject to any number of horrible campaigns and slander against you

Exactly the same as McCarthyism. People just disappeared. No one knew why or where they'd gone. You become a non-person.

It's 75 years since George Orwell's Animal Farm was published. He had to hawk it round a number of publishers as his usual publisher - the left wing Gollancz - wouldn't take it even though bit under a decade earlier they'd take Homage to Catalonia which at the time got very few sales.

Orwell was going against the views current at the time about the Soviet Union - our allies in the war so we shouldn't criticise.

This is a very good piece about Orwell, the abuse of language and the punishments for those who refuse to obey: www.uncancelled.co.uk/tie-world/gender/thought-crime-did-not-end-with-orwell/

And of course McCarthyism came shortly after Animal Farm was published...

I'll be looking for a new job soon and I think I have no choice but to delete my twitter account, as I tweet under my own name and I regularly retweet/like/comment on gender critical posts.

I'm slightly ashamed of my cowardice but have to face the reality that it might endanger any chance of future employment.

It sucks.

@Mollscroll

Ironically their logo looks an awful lot like a woman's legs, hips and groin. In fact that's all I can see when I look at their logo

Hope this reminds them what a woman is, every time they see it.

Argh! See is once and you can't unsee it!

Is there a big market for books by trans authors?

If not, how do publishers/agents think they're going to keep making a living pushing books that they think the public should read as opposed to books they might want to read...? I'm just wondering this wonderingly.

There is some utter crap being published these days. The woker it is, the bigger chance of it being published. Try to find a recent YA or fantasy title that isn't all about queer trans non-binary people and their unique oppression. Even if it's not central to the narrative, writers feel they have to shoehorn something in. Silence is violence and all that.

@BlueFreeze

Is there a big market for books by trans authors?

If not, how do publishers/agents think they're going to keep making a living pushing books that they think the public should read as opposed to books they might want to read...? I'm just wondering this wonderingly.

I think that realistically, there isn't. Two of the biggest fiction genres are romance and women's fiction. These genres absolutely depend on the protagonists being traditionally sexed. The romance genre is HUGE and though I don't write it I know that those readers don't want their females to have penises or their men to have vaginas.

There just is not a huge market for such characters and any publisher who tries to push trans books will fail dramatically. And I think they know it.

@queenofknives

There is some utter crap being published these days. The woker it is, the bigger chance of it being published. Try to find a recent YA or fantasy title that isn't all about queer trans non-binary people and their unique oppression. Even if it's not central to the narrative, writers feel they have to shoehorn something in. Silence is violence and all that.

Yes, YA and fantasy and SF are a different question altogether. That's where I suspect all those woke writers will have to concentrate their efforts.

Is there a big market for books by trans authors?

If not, how do publishers/agents think they're going to keep making a living pushing books that they think the public should read as opposed to books they might want to read...? I'm just wondering this wonderingly.

@BlueFreeze I wonder much the same myself in a wonderingly sort of way. As I understand it the biggest book buyers are middle-aged and older women. So maybe in the end, the market will decide?

They can sign all the woke authors they want. But if people don't buy, publishing can be pretty brutal! A three-book deal turns into a two or even one-book deal. A marketing budget won't be spent on an author whose first book tanked.

They can bully the agents. They can bully the publishers. They can bully the staff and they can bully women on social media. The one thing they cannot do is bully the buyers!

And speaking for myself, as a middle-aged/older woman who buys, reads and listens to books avidly, I ain't buying. Shut me up on Twitter, threaten my livelihood, abuse me all you want. You can't make me open my purse. That, ultimately, is the power we have.

@TheRattleBag

I'll be looking for a new job soon and I think I have no choice but to delete my twitter account, as I tweet under my own name and I regularly retweet/like/comment on gender critical posts.

I'm slightly ashamed of my cowardice but have to face the reality that it might endanger any chance of future employment.

It sucks.

I deleted my Twitter account that had my name on it. I’m in a job where I could potentially face disciplinary if my GC views came out.

I feel so strongly about women’s rights and absolutely appalled at what’s happening but I’m also scared of losing my job that I love.

It shocks me that I’m in this situation. It’s 2020 FFS.

Two of the biggest fiction genres are romance and women's fiction. These genres absolutely depend on the protagonists being traditionally sexed. The romance genre is HUGE and though I don't write it I know that those readers don't want their females to have penises or their men to have vaginas.

Crime and thrillers are also huge. Readers tend to be conservative with a small c. Genre readers know what they want and the most successful authors know this and are happy to give it to them.

In fact publishing is a very conservative industry. Always has been. It has to be to some extent because it's hugely risky. It costs a lot of money to launch new authors and while some are niche and happy to take a risk on someone they think shows promise what most editors want is a reliable seller. Someone who will keep writing books that delight their readers. They all want a JK Rowling/Robert Galbraith. Agents especially love bestsellers as agents make no money whatsoever until an author starts selling. (That includes the advance as that counts as being sold to a publisher).

There will always be a place for niche publishing and rightly so. We should all be able to find books we want to read and that means going far beyond what's available at an airport bookstand or in our local WHSmith. But in the end, it's the blockbusters they want and its authors who promise the big sales that most agents and editors are after. They're all looking for that gold in the submissions they get. Always is the hope this one will "go" and make them lots of money.

@OhDear2200 and @TheRattleBag I'm so very sorry to hear this. It's appalling. I hope this situation doesn't last.

I hope in the end it's readers and book buyers who force publishers to see the real landscape out there and stop trying to appease a tiny group of hardline extremists who want to shut women up. One can only hope this is a passing fad and eventually the lack of book sales will make them realise that pandering to a tiny cult is bad bad business.

And speaking for myself, as a middle-aged/older woman who buys, reads and listens to books avidly, I ain't buying. Shut me up on Twitter, threaten my livelihood, abuse me all you want. You can't make me open my purse. That, ultimately, is the power we have.

So true. I'm in several online book clubs, with thousands of readers, mostly female, who exchange recommendations, and I've never ever seen anyone asking for books about trans.

I'm a writer myself and pretty safe, as I have several book contracts under my belt which will cover the next few years, and then I hope to retire.
It would be great, though, to form a network of GC writers, agents, editors. I cannot speak my mind in the author groups I belong to, as I know some authors who are very woke. Some because they have children who are transing. It's really tragic that I cannot speak my mind about that process without being accused of transphobia. So I just keep quiet, which sucks. I am not a coward in other respects, not at all.

It would be great, though, to form a network of GC writers, agents, editors.

@Lamahaha yes it would! Maybe an all-female publishing house too? I mean it's been tried before and was very successful.

Just started reading a new book and a trans character has popped up in a (so far) non speaking role. The only description from the (straight white male author) involves the protagonist feeling sorry for them and saying the mum is mean.
It feels like complete box ticking lip service.

That’s what I’m thinking, Miss Lawis and Lamahaha, that the market will ultimately decide. It does suck to not be able to speak your mind without being piled on. I never want to offend anyone, but it seems a lot of people don’t care about offending/trying to silence me (book writing and buying adult human female).

I’ll read anything as long as I like the writing and get caught up enough in it to suspend my disbelief. I want to be transported to worlds and experiences other to me (!).

I remember reading a piece by Lionel Shriver in, I think, 2018, when she was decrying what she called the dumbing down of publishing. I didn’t agree with everything, but what she said about pushing ‘woke’ books and ‘good luck with that business model’ did resonate.