Society of Authors 'Not Fighting For Authors'

"We’re going through a major crisis in publishing and authors are suffering a great deal," said Dallas. "I see marginalisation and poverty and good books which are not being published. Authors are angry. The SoA could point out to the public that there has been a precipitous decline in the quality of books in the past 10 years, be vocal about it. They could question publishers over the way they are selecting books at the moment."

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Writer Nicola Morgan, a former Scottish chair of the SoA, said: "I agree that life is very difficult for many writers and there is a narrowing of choice and a cheapening of what we do. There are times to speak out robustly about this and times to work more persuasively behind the scenes. What I like about the SoA is its ability to do both at the right times."

But agent Claire Alexander of Aitken Alexander branded Dallas’ stance "foolish". She said: "It’s true that the big corporate publishers are narrowing their range. But they’re businesses. And it’s never been more easy for authors to find ways to readers outside of the big publishers, through independents and through e-books and print-on-demand."

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