After the Times’ oh-so-surprising article yesterday about Waterstone’s co-op fees for publishers created a storm of controversy that would surprise absolutely no one in the book biz, the bookstore chain has hit back with a response, reports the Bookseller. “A publisher cannot buy a promotional slot at Waterstone’s: books are chosen by our expert booksellers and buyers based on what they believe our customers will want to read and buy,” said Waterstone’s in a statement. It further stressed that the local bookseller recommendations and reviews that are found at the front of stores were “independently chosen and incur no costs to the publisher whatsoever.”
The Daily Mail and Telegraph also recap the situation, but one who hasn’t yet is former Waterstone’s head buyer Scott Pack, and I was kind of hoping he would already just to knock some sense into the hysteria-minded media…