It would be hypocritical of us to support a decision to NOT publish a book based on market forces (cf Woody Allen fiasco) and then turn around and decry a decision to go ahead with one based on the same. Publishers are businesses, and we should never confuse corporations with moral entities like people.
That said, people WORK for publishers and are free to voice their opinions (to a point… after which the bean counters say yea or nay and that’s final) and people are CUSTOMERS of publishers and are free to vote with their wallets. I, for instance, won’t be buying or covering (beyond this) a book by that servile masochist and spineless, morally-cuckolded toadie Mike Pence (the new gold standard, along with that deflated neck-pouch of a man Mitch McConnell, for American Igor) and I probably won’t be buying S&S books in general for a good while to reinforce this position. I’ll just add them to my list of no-go companies (which already includes scuzzy corps like Nestle, Domino’s, etc.)
Regardless of what we do, S&S will win big on this one: the GOP establishment and fringe groups will buy the book up in large blocks anyway, like they did with Don Jr’s book, so the return will be good… I mean, if your goal is purely dollars, which it is for a corporation.
Our job is to not contribute to that, even out of morbid curiosity, and to counter it by demonstrating with our wallets which kinds of books we DO support. Go buy an extra copy of Obama’s book or something. The only way to win this battle is to show up every on whatever field the war is being fought on and fight with the weapons at hand.
Read what S&S CEO Karp has to say below, but do it with a lick of salt and a lemon chaser because, like bad tequila, it tastes like a pile of steaming crap. They’re publishing it not because of any moral obligation to, they’re doing it because it makes his eyes bug out with those Daffy Duck dollar signs in them. You wouldn’t have to “cancel” anything if you didn’t jump at the chance to do it in the first place, dude.
Jonathan Karp, the publisher’s CEO, sent a letter to employees that reads in part, “As a publisher in this polarized era, we have experienced outrage from both sides of the political divide and from different constituencies and groups. But we come to work each day to publish, not cancel, which is the most extreme decision a publisher can make, and one that runs counter to the very core of our mission to publish a diversity of voices and perspectives.”
Karp’s letter is a response to an open letter from employees asking the publisher to cancel Pence’s book deal. That letter said that Pence “made a career out of discriminating against marginalized groups and denying resources to BIPOC and LGBTQA+ communities” and “has literal and figurative blood on his hands.”
Bookninja 