Horowitz says authors ‘running scared’ of halving sales by sharing opinions

Author Anthony Horowitz has said it’s wrong “writers are running scared” due to a fear of offending,  elaborating on comments he made earlier this year at Hay Festival.

In an interview with the Telegraph, Horowitz, author of the Alex Rider series as well as numerous other novels, said it is “wrong that writers should have to worry about what they are writing”, and that they’re now “following the agenda rather than setting it”. 

He told the newspaper: “It should be creative people who decide what is or is not acceptable. These days, the nervousness, the cancel culture, the fear of offending, of causing a Twitter storm, or the sudden laser-like focus that some writers attract — J K Rowling is the obvious example — strikes me as worrying and saddening.” 

In May, the author told the Hay Festival he’d been taken aback by his editor’s notes on his then-upcoming book Where Seagulls Dare: A Diamond Brothers Case (Walker Books, 2nd June 2022), saying: “I have just suffered from my last book notes from my publisher which absolutely shocked me about things that I could or couldn’t say, which is a children’s book, not an adult book.” 

Horowitz added that he thought “Children’s book publishers are more scared than anybody.”

In the Telegraph interview he went on to say: "I used to do a lot more political stuff. I was on ’Question Time’ and ’Any Questions?’ and I wrote articles for newspapers and magazines. I don’t do it any more, because there’s no point. Even on the most basic issue, Brexit, if you come out stridently in one direction, there’s a possibility you’ll alienate half your audience. At the end of the day, I’m interested in the world and have a voice, which I’m sometimes tempted to use, but my first responsibility is to my publisher, to my booksellers, to my readers. Why would I want to halve my sales? I’m not saying I don’t admire J K Rowling, although I’m not sure I completely understand why she has allowed this situation to develop. But I admire her courage. Maybe I should be braver."

He went on: “So many of these discussions are couched in ways that mean there’s going to be no outcome other than anger and violence and prejudice. There are some areas that I won’t go anywhere near, not because I don’t have opinions, but because airing those opinions will do me and the world no good."

The author concluded: “I have to try to be a little bit interesting, because that’s the deal. But, these days, it could blow up in my face. I still enjoy it all, I’m just more aware of the dangers." 

Horowitz’s comments appear to echo those made by Kazuo Ishiguro last year who claimed young writers are “self-censoring” to avoid an “anonymous lynch mob that turns up online and makes their lives a misery”.

However, Horowitz’s original comments at Hay also led publishers to staunchly defend the use of sensitivity readers among other tools as a vital way of making books more inclusive.