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THE LEAD STORY PUBLISHING AND POLITICS
10.02.17
www.thebookseller.com
Change and challenge Brexit and Trump redefine the landscape
P
ublishers and agents say they are re-examining their roles in the light of political
developments, calling Donald Trump’s US presidency—following on from the UK voting to leave the European Union last year—“a crystallising event” which will mean “a lot of people are going to have to decide what is important”. In the US, Trump’s actions in his
first days in charge—including the so-called “Muslim ban” on visitors from some Middle Eastern countries, renewed attacks on the press, and an emerging threat to the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities—have prompted strong reactions in the book industry. The US Authors Guild has
committed itself to being “vigilant in these ‘not normal’ times”, while Penguin Random House US and Hachette Book Group have offered to pay for half of a subscription fee to PEN America, which supports free speech, for its staff members. In the UK, many in the industry say
they are looking for the right way to respond. Meanwhile, a number of UK book trade professionals have also said they are cancelling or reconsidering trips to the US in the light of the current situation. Pan Macmillan adult publisher
Jeremy Trevathan was among those expressing a sense that the world faces very important challenges, affecting publishing: “We have reached one of those historical turning points,” he said. “Brexit happened, and it seemed to be about ‘Little England’, but then Trump happened, and actually something is going on that is bigger [than the events in isolation]. We’ve hit some historical watershed and we are all feeling our way in terms of the books we publish, particularly in non-fiction.” Agent Natasha Fairweather of Rogers, Coleridge & White agreed:
Waterstones Piccadilly has devoted a window to It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis (Penguin Modern Classics), first published in 1935. London regional manager Luke Taylor called the window a “showstopper”, saying: “It doesn’t take a genius to work out the similarities between the main character in It Can’t Happen Here and the chief protagonist in the soap opera currently being played out in America. The book itself was always going to sell given its stark warnings and the current state of the world. Add to that a passionate team of booksellers with an eagerness to recommend a good book and you are on to a winner. The window has helped propel it to the top of our bestsellers.”
“We are at a crossroads, a faultline in world politics. It’s an urgent and pressing time politically. I’ve been having conversations with writers and everyone’s thinking about it. There is almost panic in the publishing industry in America.” She added: “It feels as significant a time as it did in 1989 when I started [as an agent], when the Cold War came to an end and a new era began.” Agent Toby Mundy, director of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, said: “Serious non-fiction at its best is about creating the building blocks for civilisation, a critically important cultural activity. Publishers are in the civilisation business, though they occasionally forget that. [The election of Trump] is a crystallising event and a lot of people are going to have to decide what is important.” He added: “Some kind of consensus has been
shattered. We need to understand where we are and where we’re going and only books can do that for us.” A number of publishers have
vowed to publish more writers from marginalised groups in an attempt to promote a message of tolerance and combat xenophobia. Ken Barlow of radical publisher
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We all need good books that change the way we view the world, now more than ever
MICHAL SHAVIT PUBLISHING DIRECTOR VINTAGE
Zed Books said: “Publishers should deepen their commitment to publishing diverse, marginalised voices from across the globe. Now is not the time to retreat into a rarefied literary culture, it is a time for social engagement, and publishers will have to choose if, and how, they want to be part of that. “Unfortunately, the Left has largely
failed to present a coherent narrative —at least one the public has bought into—to counter the nationalist, ‘let’s look after number one’ world
BY THE BOOKSELLER NEWS TEAM
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