Debating to Sell or Not to Sell O.J.
by Claire Kirch, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 11/17/2006
The media firestorm that has developed over the November 30 publication of O.J. Simpson’s new release from Regan Books, If I Did It, Here’s How It Happened, has pushed the controversial title to #24 on Amazon this morning and created a divide among independent booksellers over whether they should carry the book. Interviews with 10 independent booksellers found that many did not order the book when it was offered to them as a blind buy by HarperCollins sales reps, and don’t plan on ordering the book now that they know the author and subject matter. All of them said, however, that they’d special order If I Did It if a customer requests they do so.
“I think [Regan Books publisher] Judith Regan has crossed the line this time. She’s always been edgy, and we’ve carried 75% of her books, but not this time,” Barbara Meade, Politics & Prose’s co-owner told PW Daily, explaining why the Washington, D.C., store is not going to carry the title. Another bookseller, asking that she not be identified, declared, “This book is in such poor taste. It makes me sick to my stomach. We’ll just let Wal-Mart sell it.”
Jeff Jennings, a bookseller at Rainy Day Books, in Fairway, Kans., said that the store will not carry If I Did It, adding, “the stunting of books is getting old,” referring to the book being offered to booksellers as a blind buy. Jennings considers the buzz surrounding If I Did It as symptomatic of current trends in commercial publishing. “[Regan’s] proving that she can manipulate the media. She’s demonstrating that publishers are relying, to their own detriment, on this need for immediate gratification” in quickly publishing and promoting -- intensely but only for a short while -- such books.
Like most of the booksellers PW Daily spoke to, Roberta Rubin, the owner of the Bookstall at Chestnut Court, in Winnetka, Ill., expressed displeasure that Regan Books is publishing a book that she considers both tasteless and exploitive. But she also has a more practical reason for not having ordered If I Did It. “At this time of the year, I don’t want to bring in a new book, unless it’s a blockbuster. I don’t think this book is going to be a blockbuster in my store.”
Gayle Shanks, the co-owner of Changing Hands in Tempe, Ariz., is stocking the book, but, she said, “not by choice.” She ordered five copies blind from her HarperCollins sales rep, and explained that if she’d known more, she would not have ordered it. “The last time I was offered a book blind, it was that book about Princess Diana, and I vowed to myself that I’d never order a book blind again. Now, after ordering [If I Did It], I’ll really never order another book blind again,” she declared.
Some booksellers, however, despite their personal opinions about the book, intend to carry If I Did It. Nicola Rooney, owner of Nicola’s Books in Ann Arbor, Mich., admitted that she and her staff are “having a difficult time with it.” Rooney will not promote the book, but will stock a few copies. “I hate to censor anything,” she explained, adding that in her 11 years as a bookseller, she has “thrown out” of her store only two books because their subject matter was so offensive.
Marva Allen, co-owner of Hue-Man Books & Cafe, a New York City bookstore specializing in books by and about African-Americans, maintained that her and her two partners’ personal opinions don’t influence their buying decisions. “We’re not going to judge. I don’t know if I would invite him in for a signing, but I’m going to carry this book. I’m a bookseller,” she said.
Both Borders and Barnes & Noble are going to start selling If I Did It on its laydown date, according to corporate spokespersons from the two chains. “It’s up to the consumers whether they choose to buy it, but we will carry this book, as we would carry any book that gets that kind of publicity,” Ann Binkley, Borders Group’s director of publicity, said.
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