It’s time to replace the Society of Authors

The most important job of any union is to support its members against bullies. So why has the Society of Authors, a sort of posh union for writers, illustrators and translators, failed to support members who are receiving death threats? In August, J.K. Rowling tweeted her sympathy for Sir Salman Rushdie after his attempted murder. Imagine how she felt when she received this response: ‘Don’t worry, you are next.’ Rowling is a member of the Society of Authors and expected the union to put pressure on the authorities by condemning the threats against her. Right? Wrong.

Not only did the Society fail to defend Rowling, but the chair of the management committee, Joanne Harris, appeared to mock her. In response, a group of members tried to use last week’s annual general meeting to remove Harris. Unsurprisingly, we were defeated; a climate of fear reigns over much of the publishing industry.

Some authors got in contact after the vote, making clear their support but explaining why they felt they couldn’t speak out. One told me: ‘If I had publicly supported the resolutions, I would be instantly branded a terf and a bigot and might lose my publishing deal.’ Another said she feared being dropped by her agent for the same reason: ‘She is already under the spotlight by trans activists and I can sense her getting nervous. It is difficult enough as an author these days but without an agent I would be finished.’

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Perhaps you might think we were being unfair to Harris, author of the bestselling novel Chocolat, who uses the pronouns ‘she/they’. But after Rowling received those death threats, Harris posted a poll on Twitter, writing: ‘Fellow authors… have you ever received a death threat (credible or otherwise)?’ Her poll included the options ‘Yes’, ‘Hell, yes’, ‘No, never’ and ‘Show me, dammit’, suggesting scepticism about how serious the threats were.