Since the Free Speech Union (FSU) launched in February 2020, a growing number of authors have come to us for advice and support – Gillian Philip, Julie Burchill, Helen Joyce, Allison Pearson, Holly Lawford-Smith – and over 250 authors have joined as members. It has become increasingly clear to us that freedom of expression is under severe pressure within the literary world, with publishers and literary agents often failing to defend their authors when their speech rights come under attack.
Some of the threats our writer members have flagged up include:
- Publishers including morality clauses in contracts.
- Sensitivity readers vetting manuscripts.
- Editors removing content to avoid giving offense (e.g., ‘cultural appropriation’).
- Bookshops refusing to stock books or, if they do, their employees refusing to display them properly.
- Authors being no-platformed from speaking events, such as literary festivals, at the behest of other authors, sponsors or venue staff.
These issues are of great concern to the FSU, and not just because they directly affect our writer members. The freedom of authors to express themselves and of people to read their work without interference or mediation by self-appointed censors is a fundamental human right.
To make sure we’re able to give these issues a proper airing in the public square – and that the speech rights of our writer members and authors more generally are protected – we have established a specialist Writers’ Advisory Council. Our hope is that this will lend the FSU’s voice authority when it speaks out in defence of freedom of expression and comes to the defence of beleaguered authors.
To better support our writer members, the FSU will:
- Ensure that a member of our case team specialises in protecting them from the kinds of censorship listed above and is always available at the end of the phone.
- Cultivate good working relationships with third party providers of specialist advice to authors on issues such as contracts, tax and insurance.
All of these services will be provided either pro bono or at a below market rate to our writer members. In addition, any writers who join the FSU will have access to all the usual benefits, such as:
- Invitations to members-only events with people like Kathleen Stock, Jack Dee, Andrew Doyle, Graham Linehan and Helen Joyce.
- Discounted tickets to parties, conferences, and comedy nights.
- FSU weekly and monthly newsletters.
- Individually tailored advice from our case and legal teams.
As with our existing members, writer members will also have access to paywalled content on our website, such as:
- FSU authored news articles, videos, and podcasts.
- FAQs on what to do if you’re asked to do something you don’t want to do, such as declare your gender pronouns in the workplace or take an unconscious bias training course.
- Research and briefings on where free speech needs to be better protected in the UK.
We hope that as many authors as possible will join the FSU, whether to protect themselves, to defend their peers or to build a public voice capable of putting the case for freedom of expression as robustly as possible. If you know of anyone that might be interested in our offer, please do share this news with them.
