Writers hit out at cuts plan in latest chapter of literature funding row

A WRITERS' association representing 700 Scottish authors has weighed into the escalating row over the funding of Scottish literature, launching a scathing attack on new proposals before the Scottish Government.

The Society of Authors in Scotland (SAOS) accused the Literature Working Group of aiming to "dismantle" the Edinburgh Unesco City of Literature organisation and attempting to "kill off'' the loss-making Books from Scotland website.

The move threatened to rob Scottish writers and publishers of "two identifiably Scottish voices", SOAS said.

The group also claimed the "demeaning" suggestions would create another layer of bureaucracy, rather than directly benefit authors. The Literature Working Group, set up by former culture minister Mike Russell, issued a controversial list of recommendations last week for how to redirect nearly 3 million in public money for literature. While the sums involved are tiny compared with major government departments, the reaction was an angry one.

Critics questioned why the group's chairwoman, Rosemary Goring, had endorsed proposals for a new "retail edition" of the Scottish Review of Books, edited by her partner, the journalist and critic Alan Taylor. Ms Goring denied any conflict of interest and said there was "no money attached to the recommendation".

But the report also recommended axing the separate office for the Edinburgh World City of Literature, funded to the tune of 90,000 a year. It was set up after the city became the first to claim the Unesco title in 2004, aiming to promote reading literature within Edinburgh and the reputation of Scots writing outside it.

The working group also recommended scaling down Publishing Scotland, currently funded at 260,000 a year, and restructuring it as part of the UK-wide Independent Publishers Guild (IPG), with much less public support.

Both the organisations "actively benefit Scottish writers and the Scottish publishing industry", said Angus Konstam, SOAS chairman. "This proposal is particularly dangerous."

He also attacked the plan for a Scottish Academy of Literature as "another layer of art and literature bureaucracy in Scotland" and said that grants to authors would be reduced to the status of student loans.

The Books from Scotland website, run through Publishing Scotland, would be wound up as another cost-saving measure under the proposals.

The Literature Working Group's panel ranges from the Birlinn publisher, Hugh Andrew, to the writer and critic Allan Massie and the poet Don Paterson.

But yesterday another leading Scottish publisher, Bill Campbell of Mainstream, said of plans to scrap Publishing Scotland: "I'm amazed that there seems to be any support for that at all.

"The majority of Scottish publishers would get completely lost in the IPG," he said. "Publishing Scotland gives Scottish publishers an identity at international book fairs… It would be crazy to throw all that away."