We apologize to everyone who is angry and disappointed about our recent decision not to accept an ad in Shelf Awareness for Readers.
There was some discussion about it yesterday that we want to clarify. Shelf Awareness for Readers is the weekly e-mail newsletter for consumers that we publish on behalf of more than 250 independent bookstores, reaching 600,000 readers, with the goal of helping booksellers promote reading and sell more books. Our bookstore partners cannot block titles that are advertised. As a result, we are careful to keep in mind that every advertised title we include appears to the bookstores' customers as something the store itself is endorsing.
In the case of Israel Alone by Bernard-Henri Lévy, we decided not to run an ad for it in Shelf Awareness for Readers because our bookstore partners have no way to de-select a title in their newsletters other than not to send the publication. We are currently exploring options that address that challenge.
The ad policy for Shelf Awareness Pro--the publication you are reading--is different. It is our own publication sent to our own trade audience, in which we can offer a broad range of voices and viewpoints. Concerning Israel Alone, we are considering how to cover the book, and related titles, in Shelf Awareness Pro.