Authors in Britain have been facing boycotts due to their books being “too Jewish.”
Speaking to The Telegraph, several people in the industry have revealed the growing sense of discomfort they have faced since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.
They say the period since the war began has marked a change in the industry, with Jewish-centric books struggling to sell and publishers often refusing to take on books that could cause conflicts at aquisition meetings.
Many have described this as a movement of “soft boycotting” where Jewish agents are being dropped and Jewish stories are left untold.
Authors in Britain have been facing boycotts due to their books being “too Jewish”
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They say Jewish authors are finding themselves “persona non grata” amongst their colleagues.
One literary agent told the paper: “The general feeling of this year is of feeling outnumbered, isolated … this culture of soft boycotting is really hard to prove and makes you sound paranoid.”
She said she has occasionally been able to sell books by Jewish authors that do not focus on their “Jewishness,” but says if the story is overtly Jewish-themed, it becomes difficult to sell.
However, books about the Holocaust seem to be the exception. Lucy Abrahams, a British literary scout said: “Anything about living Jews that still need protection or representation in any way, is just too complicated and prickly and difficult.”
She said she wonders if Holocaust stories are more palatable because the hatred came from the right rather than the left.
Many feel this boycott is so discreet it’s hard to call out. People will make careful excuses instead of directly saying they won’t take on an Israeli or Jewish author.
One author pitched a novel about Jewish working class Londoners. Although she received a positive response, it wasn’t picked up due to people saying they didn’t know how to market it.
She said she had a sense that one of the reasons it wasn’t getting past publishers was that “it was too Jewish.”
“It felt like there wasn’t a willingness to take it on,” she said. “It’s just a kind of dismissal. A ‘Jews don’t count’ vibe more than anti-Semitism.”
Neil Blair, an agent representing JK Rowling and Sir Chris Hoy, said although the industry was already difficult for Jews prior to October 7, things have only gotten worse since.
He said: “Books that were perceived as being pro-Israel were already having a problem prior to October 7, but October 7 has just accelerated it and made it much worse.”
He said since October 7 people feel like they don’t have to restrict their behaviour or activism, and almost feel like it’s their duty to cancel and boycott books by Jewish authors or on Jewish themes.
Neil Blair said since October 7 people feel like they don’t have to restrict their behaviour or activism
However he also stressed that these moves were not coming from the very top.
“We’re lucky that the CEOs of the main publishers in our country are good people. They’re concerned about this,” he said.
Many in the industry also feel silenced – unable to publicly share their views.
One author has described fears of “cancellation by stealth.” This author has had “semi-public arguments” with other authors about how their anti-Zionist views could actually be antisemitic.
She said speaking out left her ostracised: “In a small group of people, I felt backed into a corner because of my ethnicity. Suddenly, people who were friends have distanced themselves from me,” she said.
She said she wishes senior industry figures would step in to condemn this antisemitism.
It is “a chilling atmosphere for Jews, unless you are a Jew who is extremely pro-Palestinian,” she said. She added that it is so “toxic” she is considering leaving the industry.
The author said part of the problem was that her peers were getting all their information from left-wing outlets like the BBC and the Guardian, which have influenced the way they view the war.
A spokesperson for the Publishers Association told The Telegraph that the rise in antisemitism in wider society since October 7 was “deplorable,” and it concerned her to hear these reports from industry colleagues.
She said: “We believe it is essential that everyone who works in publishing, in whatever capacity and from whichever background, feels welcome and valued.”
“As a sector, we also believe in freedom of expression in the strongest possible terms and that a diversity of viewpoints delivered by writers of all backgrounds is crucial to cultural and academic discourse.”