So, is Chapters selling Mark Steyn’s book or not?

Not according to Mark Steyn - who discovered Canadians couldn’t find his book at the mega chain when he began receiving emails to his website. America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It is published by Regnery Press. He also discovered it wasn’t available in the Canadain chain when the editor of a MacLean’s cover story regarding Steyn and his book found their copy held up at the border. Astute readers began to complain.

A frustrated Mr. Robert Werner received the following written reply from Laura Blight, Indigo’s “Coordinator, Selling Services & Solutions, Store Performance Department”: “Wow, this title is certainly generating interest!” In everyone except Ms. Blight and her colleagues, it seems. The book was at No. 6 at Amazon.com; it was in its fourth printing in the U.S. on the day it was officially released; even at Chapters’ own website, at the time of writing 83 patrons have given it an “average customer rating” of five stars (or maple leafs, inevitably), and yet Ms. Reisman lists it as “not yet available.”

The book is on the Chapters/Indigo site with a note from the publisher saying it’s in re-print.

A best seller in Canada is considered 5 thousand copies.
Steyn is tech saavy  and has been busy peddling his book in the US.

Indigo isn’t happy with his column. No one is saying how many copies were purchased by the chain.

It is regrettable that Mr. Steyn doesn’t acknowledge that he wrote his Maclean’s piece even though his Canadian sales representative had fully informed him of his book’s reorder status with Indigo. We find it also curious that he chose to unfairly attack Indigo, while most other book retailers in the country are also sold out.

While one has to admire Mr. Steyn’s self-promoting efforts, there is a fine line between publicity and defamation. To make an accusation of “boycott” is a serious allegation and one should not be able to make it just to create buzz and sell more books.

Sorya Ingrid Gaulin, vice-president, public relations, Indigo Books & Music Inc., Toronto.

‘Boycott buzz’ seems to me to be a good way to sell a book.