Dear emerging authors, how’s your summer going so far? Hopefully the heat isn’t getting to you too much because the same cannot be said for some of these headlines from last month. Each one is more industry-shaking than the last and I’ve done my best to pull together a handful that will give you a good idea of the current temperature of publishing.

LGBTQ+ authors see school visits cancelled after ‘complaints from parents’. Despite an update to statutory guidance for Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) indicating that secondary-school children will be taught about sexual orientation and gender reassignment from September, multiple children’s authors have recently had events cancelled due to complaints about LGBTQ+ topics appearing in their books. 

There isn’t enough data yet to tell us whether this is a particularly recent rise in homophobia and discrimination against authors doing school visits, but I think we can all agree it’s a scary prospect for any new author to face, let alone if you’re writing for children and sharing stories of inclusion, acceptance and community. It shouldn’t be controversial, yet here we are. 

Incidents like this force us to be more diligent. Make sure you have support in place if you feel concerned for your safety when promoting a book. Research the schools you’re visiting beforehand; find out which authors have visited previously, look at what LGBTQ+ and inclusion-friendly events they might have facilitated, and see what parent groups they support. 

It’s exhausting having to always take that extra step, especially when you belong to a marginalised community, but safety – physical and emotional – should still be paramount when you’re on the road to book promotion. More often than not as an author, you’re being asked to share much more of yourself than just the funny, heartfelt book you originally wrote for the younger version of you. 

And even in adult fiction, unfortunately sometimes our safety isn’t guaranteed, hence why publishers like Jessica Kingsley are offering Safety Covers for their books – “New removable dust jackets created in response to increasing hostility towards LGBTQ+ people and other marginalised communities”. 

It’s a sad day when readers have to hide the books they’re enjoying, isn’t it? But this is how a publisher protects its authors, and honestly, it’s the bare minimum that authors should expect. However, there are things also happening behind the scenes that it’s worth being aware of.

It’s a sad day when readers have to hide the books they’re enjoying, isn’t it? But this is how a publisher protects its authors, and honestly, it’s the bare minimum that authors should expect

The Bookseller’s Bullying Survey: staff welfare an issue for sector, as Hachette and Sweet Cherry are singled out for criticism. It’s important to consider how multiple accounts of bullying within the publishing industry point to a systemic issue, one that we as authors are not exempt from. In fact, a lot of the time we are pulled into murky industry waters without realising it.

Whether it’s a staff member’s personal details being used as an excuse for a publisher failing an author, or it’s a children’s literary festival blaming the industry for their lacklustre attempts at an inclusive lineup, whilst going directly to multiple author’s agents to stop them complaining about said lineup, we are always unwittingly involved. Which means there’s no better time than to assess, review and reinforce our professional boundaries. 

These can vary depending on your comfortability; maybe you’re adding your name to a letter calling out unfairness in the industry, or you’re making it clear to institutions what you will and will not accept professionally. And that includes risks to your reputation and your livelihood.

‘Genius’ novel sold in six and seven-figure deals at auction pulled over suspected AI use. This headline broke my heart a little. In case you’re new here, I’ve been mentioning the impending negative impact of the Fake Intellectual (AI) on new authors for the better part of a year in this column. Although it’s tempting to ‘blame the robots’, ultimately we have to blame the people behind them – the ones using the tech to discredit creativity, dismantle careers and somehow profit off of regurgitations of art all at once.

In this particular instance, a debut author of colour who had the publishing industry in a tizzy over their book, sparking auctions and multi-figure deals, has had their as-yet-unpublished work overcast with AI-usage doubt. Despite the author vehemently denying their use of it and showing evidence of their creative process (which we discussed in May), the industry has thrown down the gauntlet and run screaming from the project, for fear they too might be run through an AI detector, I guess. 

Jokes aside, what are we doing here? How do we combat accusations over our work, or better yet, keep our eyes on our own ‘literal’ papers? As always, I encourage you to stay alert to opportunities whilst still knowing who’s got your back in the industry. This isn’t the first time an author of colour has been accused of using AI to create their debut, and unfortunately it’s unlikely to be the last. Still, we can all be vigilant about our work and make sure we’re having conversations about ideas, copyright and AI usage as early as possible with publishers, agents and other industry professionals.

And please don’t believe the AI hype; there is no publishing industry without the author.