St'nDrknss is a tumblelog.

The demise of independent bookshops, and the dominance of certain chains whose homogenous stock is controlled by the South of England, mean that Scottish writing – unless it’s a saleable brand such as Crime – is seen as being something only for Scots again, so won’t be stocked in the 3/2s in England. So dialect writing? Forget it. Inevitably, this influences the choices which publishers make and the marketing spend they’ll use on Scottish books. This is despite the fact that the likes of Suhayl Saadi and Mark McNay both wrote incredibly powerful and ingenious dialect novels, but the tide of fashion in the Noughties had turned by that point. How can you reduce ethnicity to a fashion! In the Noughties, only James Robertson has managed to carve out a space where he can continue to publish serious, ambitious novels in the Scottish idiom and still be commercially successful. Only one in a whole decade. In the Eighties and Nineties there were dozens. That tells its own story about how capitalism has defeated Scottish literature. I’ve managed to chart a course through, but it’s very hard work and I’ve had to reinvent myself constantly.