Does Modern Publishing Foster Censorship?

Trends in literature change through the years and this is reflected in the books that are and remain popular, but modern publishing is so perfectly tailored and marketed that often you need something that fits into a specific ‘sale’ box, but the question is, does this foster a form of censorship, screening content for readers?

I’ve been looking into writing and publishing for a long time now and it’s pretty clear that in the last few years at least, the game has changed a lot. Publishing deals have never been so hard to come by and with the industry struggling for so long, publishing houses don’t want to take risks.

This means that some books, particularly bestsellers and YA fiction have come to feel a little formulaic. Even before you open the cover, you’re led by trends. We’ve done wives (The Time Traveller’s Wife, The Zookeeper’s Wife), and moved through to girls (Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train, Girl in the Ice) and when you open the front cover the same formulas exist. This doesn’t leave much room for books that are a little out there, those cult classics of the past, the books that should not have necessarily been popular but appeal to some sense of humanity. One wonders if a book such as The Dice Man which deals with themes or rape and paedophilia in the most light hearted way would even get published today.

Then we have the sensitivities to consider, for instance, appropriating characters from cultures that aren’t your own can be thought of as insensitive if not done correctly. Who can forget the furore that hit J.K Rowling with the Native American community thanks to her skin walkers, and if Rowling, queen of social justice falls foul of these pitfalls, what chance do mortal folk have?

The right wing press have even claimed that publishing houses are employing sensitivity readers to screen out content that might be offensive. Ensuring that a book doesn’t have an underlying accidental racist theme or tie into negative stereotypes isn’t censorship, it’s quality control. No one is suggesting we only publish books full of sweetness and light because that doesn’t really reflect the world we live in. It’s not about censoring out insults or offensive words, but to ensure that works don’t perpetuate negative stereotypes or show a biased view.

Ultimately, while authors should not go out of their way to appropriate other cultures, or deliberately offend, books should reflect the real world and we hope they continue to do so even as publishing changes and grows.

Writers have never been so accountable for the work they put out, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing and should mean plenty of quality work for the future.