Following this morning’s item about the increased print run for If I Did It, and my curiosity as to who was buying those extra copies, Barnes & Noble has confirmed that it is reversing its decision to keep the book off its shelves.
“When plans were initially announced to publish If I Did It,” says spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating in a statement documenting the policy change, “there was widespread customer outrage and disgust. So much outrage that our buyers felt there would be little customer demand for the newest edition of the book, published by The Goldman Family.” Hence the original decision to only sell the book through their website or for in-store special orders. “Since then,” Keating notes, “we’ve been monitoring the pre-orders and customer requests and have concluded that enough customers have expressed interest in buying the book to warrant stocking it in our stores. We do not intend to promote the book but we will stock it in our stores because our customers are asking for it.”
In other words, B&N is doing exactly what Borders has said they’d do all along. Interesting how consumer interest went from “a handful of pre-orders” to “enough customers… to warrant stocking it in our stores” in just two days, isn’t it?