I recently received a promotional email from Borders promoting Ann Coulter’s new work of fiction, “Godless.” In the mailing, they call her a “political firebrand.” I worte to borders to express my disappointment:
There are many legitimate political books that have been released in the last few months, yet Borders has chosen to promote the book by Coulter? That is mind-boggling, and extremely disappointing. She is not a “political firebrand,” she is a hate-mongering propagandist. The inaccuracies and lies in Coulter’s earlier books are extremely well documented (do a Google search for: Coulter book lies).
Just because an author’s books sell well does not make her work good, accurate, or worthy of your promotion. You should at least list the book under Fiction where it belongs.
Follow me across the break to read their limp response and my follow-up.
As expected, Borders wrote back that they maintain political neutrality and sell the books Borders readers want to buy:
Thank you for writing to Borders with your concerns about our title selection.
Borders believes in the basic right of our customers to choose what they want to read and buy, and we feel that it is important for us not to take any political stance-but instead to remain a neutral store where customers can gather information about any topic and any opinion. We do not practice preferential treatment to authors based upon the author’s political views; we simply carry and market all titles we feel our customers will buy.
In fact, our inventory is based primarily on what Borders shoppers have shown they are interested in purchasing-only 50% of the titles in our stores are common to every store and the other 50% is driven entirely by the shopping habits of our customers. As a result inventory varies greatly from store to store. All of the hot sellers are stocked in every Borders store.
We firmly believe that our customers are intelligent, curious people who enjoy exploring all types of books and periodicals. They come to Borders because they know we carry a variety of titles that vary in political views, tastes and interests and our selection of titles is as diverse as the customers that we are proud to serve.
Thanks once again for sharing your comments with us. If you have any further questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact us at ccare@bordersstores.com.
Sincerely,
Jeanette
Borders Customer Care
http://www.bordersstores.com
Well, this is not a satisfactory response. When talking about Coulter, it isn’t her political slant that is the issue, it is her dishonesty and hate speech. This is like news programs that say they are just being fair and balanced when they report what each side says, without mention that one side is totally full of shit. So here is my response to Jeanette:
My issue was not with you selling the Coulter book, it was with your promotion of the book. You choose a very limited number of titles to include in your promotional mailings, emailings, and brochures. I was extremely disappointed that your bookstore chose to include the work of an author whose past work has been proven to be grossly inaccurate and filled with hate speech, all politics aside.
As you state, that choice was based on the fact you “feel your customers will buy” Ms. Coulter’s book. That may be smart marketing if your only concern is the bottom line, but I would hope any business would also seek to be socially responsible. Promoting a book full of inaccuracies and hate speech, regardless of the political slant, is not socially responsible, and that is why I am disappointed.