Though publishing-related reactions speak volumes, it’s the booksellers who must decide if IF I DID IT is worth stocking and making available to its customers. As Nancy Olson, owner of Quail Ridge Books & Music in Raleigh, N.C., put it to Shelf Awareness this morning: “Do we take a ‘stand’ on such a book, thereby sending our customers who want to buy it to our competitors? Is this a form of censorship? Or do we make it available without displaying it other than having it on the shelf?” She added, “I’m disturbed to be put in such a position. Freedom of the press notwithstanding, the way they’re marketing the book raises huge ethical questions. We all know the publishers are desperate to make money on commercial books, but this takes the cake.” Late yesterday, Olson said, the store decided to sell the book but donate proceeds “to Interact, a nonprofit here that shelters battered women and children.”
Other booksellers plan to follow in her footsteps with regards to charitable donations. Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena will give proceeds from If I Did It to the Nicole Brown Foundation, while Green Apple Books in San Francisco proceeds to Casa de las Madres, a local shelter for battered women and will use shelf talkers to let customers know of the policy. Kevin Ryan called it “a good solution because we still have the book but are making a statement at the same time.”
Some stores won’t even bother; Carla Cohen at Politics & Prose said so to Publishers Lunch, and Kelly Justice at Fountain Bookstore cancelled its order, which was blind. She added that as of yesterday the store had decided on a new policy: it will no longer purchase a title for which the publisher gives no information. “It’s been going on for years, and I can’t do my job like that,” she said. “It’s not acceptable.” And in the UK, Murder One‘s Maxim Jakubowski calls for an overall boycott. “Normally, I’d decry any form of censorship, but I fear this is just a book too far, and a terrible indictment of the greed and cynicism of the present breed of conglomerate publishers.”