A couple of months back, I agreed to be part of a judging panel for a new promotion, Fiction Uncovered. The promotion, which launches today, is designed to promote midlist authors – by which I mean those writers who've put out a few books, been well-reviewed and sold modestly, but have yet to make a name for themselves: to win a prize, or hit the jackpot in sales terms. It seemed to me, when the administrator Sophie Rochester asked if I'd be involved, that in a time when publishing finds itself pressed on all sides, this was a hugely worthwhile thing to do.
After Sophie spoke to me, I asked around on the Guardian books desk, and found that everyone had a pet example of a great, overlooked author who was in danger of slipping into obscurity and out of contract: names that came up included Jane Gardam, Deborah Moggach, Carol Birch, Margaret Forster, Tim Parks, Tobias Hill, Jem Poster, Tim Pears, Charlie Williams ... the list went on. And presumably this is just the tip of the iceberg.
So I'd like to extend the question outward. Who are we missing? The books that will eventually end up being in contention for the promotion will be chosen by the publishers – as with prizes like the Booker, they've been asked to submit a couple each. But I'll ask Sophie to pass this blogpost on to them, and hopefully it might push them towards authors they might not yet have considered. Who are the great unread?
