Q&A with Mohamed Tonsy

The Society of Authors (SoA) is a union for writers, illustrators and translators. Find out more about the SoA and other unions for writers and artists.

Elections are currently open for the SoA Management Committee 2025 elections, closing on the 22nd October, with the last UK postal date the 17th October 2025.

The Management Committee are volunteer members of the SoA, who are elected by the wider membership once a year, by post. Management Committee members are legal directors of the organisation, serve a term of three years and can be re-elected.

One of SBWN’s community members, Mohamed Tonsy, is standing for the Society of Authors Management Committee 2025 elections. We caught up with Mohamed to find out why he’s standing for election, what his concerns and priorities are, and how he’ll advocate on behalf of SoA members and writers in Scotland and across the UK.

Mohamed, what got you involved in union organising in the first place?

I first joined the Society of Authors (SoA) in 2022 when my novel – You Must Believe in Spring – was being published with Hajar Press. Because of union rules, I was only eligible to join the SoA (as a full member with voting rights) once I had a book contract in place. I knew how difficult it was to make a living as a writer, particularly as a queer writer-of-colour who felt underrepresented in the UK’s cultural landscape. Being part of a union felt necessary for that reason; as a diaspora writer who has made their home in the UK, it was important for me to be part of a trade union given the challenges of making a living as a writer here. 

Can you share any moments when organising collectively felt impactful?

Those who were part of the union in 2022 will remember that trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFS) were trying to bully Joanne Harris – then-Chair of the SoA’s Management Committee – out of her position under the guise of ‘protecting free speech’ when what they really wanted to do was remove Joanne for her support of trans and nonbinary writers. Once I signed up to become a member, I registered for my first Annual General Meeting and voted against the motions trying to oust Joanne Harris. It felt like a pivotal moment; would we allow those who think of hate speech as ‘free speech’ to take over? Thankfully, those motions were defeated. Now, with the recent transphobic Supreme Court ruling, it is more important than ever to work towards effective solidarity with our trans, nonbinary and intersex siblings whose lives and ability to work is being eradicated. I wasn’t involved in union organising in 2022, but quickly realised the power book workers wielded when organising as a collective. 

In November 2023 – one month into the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza – members of the SoA organising with Fossil Free Books – myself included – started working on putting forward a Palestine solidarity motion alongside a motion calling for the books industry to divest from the fossil fuel industry and fossil fuel financing. As book workers, we recognised that the biggest threat to our Palestinian counterparts is Israeli settler colonialism, apartheid and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Writers, translators, illustrators and educators were being deliberately targeted by the Israeli occupation, and every publishing house, bookshop, archive and university in Gaza had been destroyed. It felt imperative that the largest union of book workers in the UK loudly declare its solidarity with Palestinians, as it rightly did with Ukrainians at the outset of the Russian invasion.

As members of the SoA, we used the union’s democratic processes to call for an Extraordinary General Meeting, which took place in May 2024. The collective work that made this possible was immense. Ahead of the meeting, the SoA’s Management Committee used a restrictive and undemocratic communications policy to declare that it was outside of its remit to comment on ‘political issues’ and to recommend that members oppose the Palestine solidarity motion, undermining the democratic process unions are supposed to uphold. The motion was marginally defeated, but our motion calling for fossil fuel divestment across the books industry passed with a significant margin. The Palestine solidarity statement was the bare minimum we could do for our Palestinian colleagues as a union. The problem we were facing became apparent, rather than being a member-led union that advocates for its workers, the SoA is a hierarchical body that’s not representative of its current members, and potential members. 

The reason I have persisted and am now running for a seat on the Management Committee is for the same reason I joined the union in the first place. We’re stronger together, and we deserve a union that will represent us when it counts. 

In your opinion, what are the benefits of being a member of a union?

Currently if you’re an author, translator or illustrator, and you need help vetting contracts, have concerns on the fairness of the pay you’re receiving, or are looking for a sense of community, then you can find that within the SoA. 

However, there is so much more that the union could be doing to support book workers. SoA groups such as the Authors with Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses group and the Translators Association, provide significant and vital support for their members. While most trade unions have groups supporting black people and people of colour, groups for working-class folks, and for queer, trans and nonbinary folks, the SoA still has none of these. The fact that groups such as the ADCI exist shows that the SoA has the capacity and ability to set up groups to address members’ specific needs. Scarcity of funding, the threat of AI, the cost-of-living crisis and declining rates of pay affect all book workers, but for marginalised workers, these challenges are compounded. 

The Society of Authors in Scotland (SoAiS) group also provides support and community for book workers in Scotland. It’s important to note that while the UK-wide SoA is not affiliated with the Trade Union Congress (TUC) the Scottish branch is STUC affiliated. A hurdle in the SoAiS’s ability to self-govern though is the fact that, while the SoAiS can attend Management Committee meetings, it does not have the right to vote on issues discussed by the UK-wide Management Committee. I am encouraged by the work the SoAiS’s current committee is undertaking, and look forward to working closely with them to address the unique challenges we face in Scotland, leading into the 2026 Holyrood elections and beyond. 

Publishing has been difficult to access as a queer writer-of-colour. As I mentioned in my candidate statement, without the labour of organisations run by people of colour for people of colour – including the Scottish BPOC Writers’ Network, Maslaha, MFest and Hajar Press – I wouldn’t have been able to share my work. As the largest trade union for writers, the SoA is uniquely positioned to challenge these politics of exclusion and austerity that disproportionately affect marginalised workers. It is an absolute priority to me to help writers access support funds, thrive in the literary world, and protect their work and their livelihood. In order for publishing to become more accessible, groups addressing members’ shared needs need to be built; writing can often feel like a solitary endeavour, but without the support of others, writers’ words would never leave the drafts folder.

Have you found supportive spaces or initiatives of workers coming together seeking change and justice? And how have these influenced your union work?

Definitely. Organising with Fossil Free Books has provided a concrete example of what worker power can accomplish in the books industry. One example that comes to mind is when Fossil Free Books (re-)launched the Baillie Gifford divestment campaign in 2024 to get the Scotland-based asset manager to divest from companies complicit in the ongoing occupation, apartheid and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and fossil fuel financing. When considering strategy, we knew that a significant number of book workers would lose valuable pay for their actions in solidarity with Palestinians and those on the front lines of the climate crisis. A structure of mutual aid had to be built. 

So, we put together a fund on Open Collective, open to all book workers. Book workers who lost work as a result of taking action or who withdrew their labour – for example, by withdrawing from a festival in protest of the festival receiving Baillie Gifford funding – could claim up to £50 per opportunity lost. Alongside this, book workers could claim £50 from a hardship fund, no questions asked. Obviously, this doesn’t replace vital income received from festival appearances and book sales, the latter of which is important not just for authors, translators, illustrators, but also publishers. 

This fund is an example of the mutual aid and care that’s possible within the books industry, especially when supporting those who are taking action to effect material change in an industry where we’ve otherwise been disempowered, and made to feel like we should be grateful for whatever we can get. And that’s what the Baillie Gifford divestment campaign was about, we deserve more than an industry that’s content with being complicit in the genocide of Palestinians and the destruction of our planet, and we deserve a union that will loudly call for solidarity with Palestinians, much like the National Union of Journalists has. The books industry is built on our collective labour, we have a stake in it. We are entitled to a strong union that will support us in our fight for increased government spending on cultural spaces, and a more equitable and accessible publishing industry. 

The Open Collective fund is still open, and is now subsidising union membership fees for book workers, whether that’s for the SoA, Writer’s Guild of Great Britain, the National Union of Journalists, or any other relevant union. 

You’ve shared some of the challenges facing writers, illustrators and translators that you’re most concerned with, and some of the ways you’re planning to advocate on behalf of SoA members. Why did you decide to stand for election to the SoA Management Committee? 

Currently, the SoA is run more like a private members’ club than a trade union. Polly Atkin, Matt Abbott, Jen Calleja and I are running for seats on the Management Committee as a coalition to give us the best chance of making it function like a proper union that’s representative of its membership. 

We deserve a union that represents us, one that’s ready to fight for its workers’ rights. Racist and xenophobic far-right extremism is on the rise in the UK, there is an ongoing genocide in Palestine at the hands of the Israeli occupation and its allies, the rights of our trans and nonbinary siblings are being erased, and disability support is being cut nationwide. If the Society of Authors is serious about representing all authors, translators and illustrators in the UK then now is the time to take a strong stance on these issues and put structures in place that allows marginalised book workers to carry on their work while getting the support they need to live. 

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Elections are currently open for the SoA Management Committee 2025 elections, closing on the 22nd October, with the last UK postal date the 17th October 2025.