Canelo / Arts Council England

Canelo / Arts Council England | 
36

Literature in the 21st Century: Understanding Models of Support for Literary Fiction
you are living on the poverty line. All the things that would feed you 
as a writer – lectures or writers’ groups – cost something. If you are 
truly broke, it’s too much. There are loads of things that sustain you 
as writer from going to events to buying books that you can’t do 
without money. Literature isn’t free. If you are poor or have difficulty 
or disability it will impact on your writing. Being middle class and 
taking a year off or living at home makes it easier. You are fed as a 
writer – emotionally and physically and intellectually – with money 
and connections. If you live in Doncaster what are the chances 
you know someone in Notting Hill? The further you are from the 
network, the more hurdles there are to overcome. It’s harder if you 
aren’t brought up in a literary atmosphere. There is also the subject 
matter. If you want to write about the edge, the marginalised world, 
I’m not convinced that publishers realise and understand the market 
for that sort of work. Are those stories valued? Clearly, sometimes 
they are – some books get through. But in publishing houses, who 
are the readers, the decision makers? Until we have more inclusion 
within the publishing industry then the readers and editors are largely 
coming from a white, middle class background. This is not to say that 
working class and marginalised writers have to always write about 
their experiences. We will have true equality when the refugee writer 
can get his romantic fiction published and the working class writer his 
gothic sci-fi thriller. Like everyone else, we want to write about what 
we want to write about.
This underscores the point that almost all literary publishing is 
concentrated on London. The major publishers are in London. All but 
one of the Independent Alliance are in London. The newspapers and 
reviews are based in London. Decisions are made in London. There is 
little sign that any of these things will change in future – and given the 
nature of author earnings, the fact that London is the most expensive