Joanne Harris has spoken out against an "absurd" focus on debuts in the publishing world.
The Chocolat author urged publishers to support existing writers in their careers rather than pursuing one debut after another, during a Q&A held with The Empowered Author founder Sam Missingham on Monday 23rd September.
Harris said: "I've seen a number of debut authors emerge and get very large initial advances - which is great for a debut author - but it doesn't necessarily mean that the publisher will value that author beyond their debut. We're getting a generation of twenty-somethings being praised and paraded around for their debut because it's a debut and then we just don't hear about them again. Their second novel - which if often a bit of a problematic one to do anyway - may not necessarily do as well, has not necessarily been pushed as much. Their career instead of moving upwards and building on its success ends up kind of dwindling. They get replaced by the next big debut."