Back in February, Daniel Tutt sent an email to staff at Repeater Books threatening to embarrass anyone associated with myself or Acid Horizon by publishing a letter from various Repeater authors who experienced censorship. This embarrassing letter would not appear, Tutt implied — with no sense of irony — if I (and everyone else) deleted then-recent tweets about him being an idiot online. I was further implicated in this because of my apparently censorious practices as an editor at Repeater Books — a role I have never held.
Reader, I doubled down. Consequently, Tutt only embarrassed himself and his letter never appeared. I imagine this is, in part, because of what I posted on Twitter not long afterwards.
I would have posted the Twitter statement here on the blog at the time, but it was under (re)construction then. I have a feeling, however, that all of this is going to become relevant again — not only thanks to Sereptie’s recent SubStack about Daniel’s colluding with the Zionist management of Watkins Media — so here’s what I said for posterity:
I am hearing that Daniel Tutt has sent an angry letter to Repeater asking that I delete all recent tweets about him.
It is a strange request, as I have only ever worked as a proofreader for Repeater on a freelance basis, and the imprint has no authority over what I say or write, just as I don’t have (nor have I ever had) any say over what it publishes.
Disagreements I take with the work of other authors are personal to me, and I was dissuaded of a positive opinion of Tutt’s work long before he published with them. This is surely encouraged since the imprint’s editorial team has long hoped to platform a wide range of voices.
Yes, sometimes I think that’s gone too far. I think the publication of Rhyd Wildermuth’s cloaked work of transphobia was a mistake; the contracting of a book (later rescinded?) by Angie Speaks even more so.
Writers for Compact / Sp!ked have infrequently had a place in Repeater/Zer0’s roster, and most of the imprint’s controversies can be traced back to these individuals. When Repeater bought Zer0 back from Doug Lain, it was with the intention of ousting their stain once and for all.
When Tutt threatens to publicise private tensions with other authors, he is largely referring to people associated with their reactionary cliques. Many of them have behaved in unhinged ways (as he has been doing to Acid Horizon) and I doubt many would feel sympathy towards them.
It is Tutt’s solidarity with these people that I’ve never liked. Again, this comes down to my personal principles, and I have long been vocal about them, with Tariq previously expressing gratitude with regards to having an author willing to doggedly fight the imprint’s corner in a personal capacity.
That being said, I’m aware others at Repeater have been less enthused by my gobshite tendencies. To each their own. But as their tagline goes, “I’m alive and I don’t agree.” I stand by everything I’ve said and will simply respond that Tutt can go do one.
An addendum (or two):
I should add that, since the future of the imprint has been uncertain for at least a year now, I’ve long made peace with the fact that any professional relationship I have with it (as author or proofreader) is over. So Tutt’s deferred request is all the more bizarre. I remain friends with many involved, but I will not be choosing to publish with Repeater again. All this only further demonstrates that Tutt has no idea how it is run, or who by. I simply dislike him personally.
One more thing: Tutt claims I’ve been censorious in my capacity as a proofreader. There are books I’ve been very critical of — not on the basis of politics, but quality of writing, which I’ve always addressed constructively (where possible). I take great pride in that side of my work. I think it’s a job I’m very good at, and have been told as much. I’ve never received any complaints, and my work has always aimed to improve the final project. Franky, Tutt has lost it if he thinks my removal of a comma here or there amounts to “censorship on the left”, and I look forward to what response he produces, which will be embarrassing for him but not for me.
For transparency, here’s a full list of Repeater titles that have seen my red pen. I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of them.
As for the claim [made in Tutt’s email to Repeater] that pushback against Tutt’s initial tantrum has led to him being harassed and called a fascist: in my opinion, he is not one. He’s a useful idiot who helps spread reactionary sentiments by the basis of (useless and ineffective) “critical engagement” in a debate-bro sphere that thrives on dissensus for clicks. He claims a lack of understanding about “neo-fascism”, not seeing how he contributes to its own attention economy. Deplatforming works and is a valid form of resistance under platform capitalism. The end.
It was exactly one month after this statement was posted that Tutt finally published his report on left-wing censorship at Repeater Books. As predicted, it was embarrassing for him. All of his barbs and accusations were blunted, and he no longer sought to call me out by name; he fumbled others’ grievances, not being privy to other reasons why individuals were not to be published by Repeater or Zer0 (it’s easy to make something sound political when editorial staff simply don’t want to give oxygen to the personal); and in which he parroted a line from Watkins’ Zionist management, pouring cold water on the Publishers for Palestine controversy to instead cite financial statements that are dubious and very questionable, not least because the sharing of this information may break confidentiality agreements… Oh dear.
But I imagine that is will (unfortunately) not be the last time we hear from Tutt. He’s been a glutton for embarrassment for few years now, and he keeps coming back for more.
So I’ll leave all of this here, just in case…