Read on Twitter
HOW LONG HAVE YOU *GOT*, PALS? I mean, a) do we believe Sally Rooney is "a writer whose style is as hard to catch and name as a new species of wild animal"? I wouldn't personally say so. But b) we wouldn't HAVE Sally Rooney had Scotland's own Janice Galloway not done it first. https://twitter.com/palebackwriter/status/1284419492257333248
The problem is not that Scotland isn't producing brilliant, innovative, original literature - that has never been the problem. Scottish authors deliver the goods over and over: indeed we're in a unique position to do so, as we're so often ignored by London-centric publishing.
Scottish authors are routinely passed over for awards and 'best of' lists. As this article acknowledges, Scottish authors rarely end up in Bookseller headlines for bagging the coveted 'six figure deal' via a bidding war. What's hilarious is the OP suggests THAT IS *OUR* FAULT.
A thing I've learned about mainstream fiction publishing since I entered its weird world in 2017: it is NOT a meritocracy. OK, you have to write a good book to get in the door. But plenty of truly stellar books are published and sink without trace, while mediocre ones are feted.
Not always, but OFTEN, publishers CHOOSE who or what is going to be "the big name" or "the big book." They make it happen by chucking money at that person/book. Look at American Dirt, which many readers (especially readers of colour) have cast serious doubt on, even boycotted.
That book is still in the bestseller lists. Because it's the chosen one.
Scottish books are almost never the chosen one. Denise Mina, in my humble opinion, ought to have won EVERYTHING. She ought to be WAY better known than she is. The Long Drop was an absolute tour de force.
Scottish books are almost never the chosen one. Denise Mina, in my humble opinion, ought to have won EVERYTHING. She ought to be WAY better known than she is. The Long Drop was an absolute tour de force.
Why don't Scottish books/authors get 'chosen'? Because our faces don't fit. Our voices don't sound right. We're not marketable. We don't go to the right dinner parties. We're 400+ miles from the right dinner parties.
I mean yes, Times writer! I agree! We ought to be being given six-figure book deals! Scottish writers deserve that as much as our English counterparts! But HI WE ARE ACTUALLY WRITING THE BOOKS Y'KNOW? We have plenty of Sally Rooney equivalents here. They're just WILDLY UNDERRATED
. @extrateethmag have a great thread of Scottish women who OUGHT TO BE Sally Rooney level famous and aren't through no fault of their own, but personally I'd also just like to mention @helensedgwick, who is criminally under-read and under-appreciated, as just one example.
See also @mspaulsonellis, who by the way actually DID get one of those six figure deals! And who I have seen described as "cosy crime" when her books are actually much more genre-defying than that!
There's also a whole thing to be said about GENRE here, btw. Notice many of Scotland's most loved (by readers) novelists are writing crime? Val McDermid, for example? Val is a HUGE DEAL. But the OP wouldn't think of Val as Rooney-adjacent because she writes genre fiction.
I'm going to SHOUT THIS, because I say it a lot and folk don't seem to hear: MUCH OF SCOTLAND'S MOST INTERESTING FICTION IS HAPPENING IN GENRE! PERHAPS ESPECIALLY IN CRIME! AND IT GETS PASSED OVER FOR STUFF BECAUSE THE LITERARY TASTE MAKERS AUTOMATICALLY RULE OUT GENRE FICTION!
(Seriously: go and read The Long Drop if you don't believe me. Go and read Louise Welsh's The Cutting Room because OMG THAT BOOK.)
Having said all this, there is a part of me that sees Scotland and its authors being largely excluded from the hyper-commercial world of six-figure deals and ÂŁ20k-cheque awards, and thinks, GOOD. Because while we're being passed over we're free to create GREAT WORK (hear me out).
In her essay "The space for poetry", Adrienne Rich (apologies for citing a problematic human) argues that poetry, a notoriously un-commercial artform, actually benefits from existing on the fringes. Poets are poor, & that sucks, but no one's telling them what they have to write.
The fringes is where the most interesting work gets done, pretty much always. And that's WHY every Scottish person has looked at that headline and become immediately enraged. Because WE KNOW that the most interesting, innovative, experimental work is being done here! Around us!
Scottish authors have never given a f*ck about what's trendy. Scottish authors are deeply interested in the margins. They're SO interested in identity, and personhood. They incorporate indigenous and minority languages. They know their folklore, and use it like a weapon.
The tastemakers can't handle it. Can't even see it happening, if this article is anything to go by. Disappointing, but fine. Because I'm pretty sure Scottish authors are going to carry on doing their thing regardless of whether or not they're picked to be this year's IT BOOK.
Indeed I hope, if you're a Scottish writer and a woman, that you read that headline, thought, "hold my beer," and went away to work on your novel. 
