A class apart

Anyone who knows me knows that the question closest to my heart is how to break down the barriers that exist for us working-class writers. Socioeconomic hardship is the single most dominating force that, in recent years, has driven me to think about how I, as an author, could change the publishing landscape. It also drove me to set up The Working-Class Writers Festival in 2021, and the Nature Writing Prize for Working-Class Writers, now in its third year.

In our sector it’s important to reinforce our community by shining a light on the problems we working-class writers and publishing professionals face, and to find ways to readdress the balance for the benefit of everyone. For writers the barriers are tenfold; from the moment we try to establish ourselves and work out how best to approach agents and editors, whether to “come out” as working-class, wondering if our accents will turn an agent off, or if we’ll sound unprofessional or not, our insecurities are a multitude of burdening questions.

What we can all agree on is that most problems that arise come down to money. Cash equals opportunity, travel, education, time, self-esteem and freedom, and without it many opportunities are missed

Barriers for those working in the sector don’t just include the obvious cost that securing those all-important internships entail, but also the struggle to fit into a culture that is almost exclusively upper-middle-class, an often closed group where a specific set of rules exist, loaded with signs and signals that only those who grew up in the luxury of financial stability know about. These learnt social behaviours are what every single working-class publishing professional told me was the hardest to navigate. 

What we can all agree on is that most problems that arise come down to money. Cash equals opportunity, travel, education, time, self-esteem and freedom, and without it many opportunities are missed. Simply put, having time and taking up space costs money.

This is why it is so incredibly important that this working-class special edition of The Bookseller exists. We in publishing have a responsibility, not only to writers but to each other, to recognise the differences in order to allow those individual variances to win out against the usual practice of group assimilation.

Inside scoop

In this edition readers can expect industry insights and author interviews from a whole wealth of working-class talent, people who have had to work a little bit (often a lot) to get to where they are in their careers.

Above all else I hope to remind the sector to keep challenging and pushing boundaries in order to create a circle of influence that is infinite—ask questions, be bold, be curious. Above all else, be brave. Your working-class colleagues and authors have had to be. It’s your time now.

About the guest editor
Natasha Carthew is a working-class writer from Cornwall. She is the author of eight books. Her new book Undercurrent: A Cornish Memoir of Poverty, Nature and Resilience is an exploration of rural poverty and a story of hope, beauty and fierce resilience. Undercurrent will be published by Coronet/Hodder & Stoughton April 2023.