When?

I work in a bookstore and of course, with the upcoming election being hotly contested, we hear a lot of "opinions" on certain topics and books in our store. Some I agree with...some I don't. But when I am in my store working, I only have one thing that I worry about. Sales. That's it. Nothing else. If a book is selling well...it gets featured. If it isn't...it gets shelved. This has always worked well in our store, with not many comments from customers one way or the other. The biggest complaints we have had was questioning why we didn't have a particular book "out front". When we explained that we were selling the book, but were just currently sold out, most people just shrugged and ordered the book with no further discussion.

Until Unfit for Command.

Since that book has come out, we have been berated up and down on an almost daily basis. Now, my personal politics aside, like I said, when I am in my store, I think of one thing....SALES. If we had the book, it would be out, featured in the front, so people could see it. The only problem is...we don't have it. Not many bookstores, if any do. But because we don't have the book in and featured, people think it gives them the right to question our competence, knowledge, politics, honor and most importantly...integrity. "Well, why don't you have it? If it was a book supporting Kerry, you would have it featured!!! What are you people...stupid? We know you have the book. You are just stockpiling it and refusing to sell it. We know...Rush and Hannity told us on the radio."

Bingo. We have a winner.

According to many of the customers that are irate that we don't have the book, it seems one reason we are getting so much hatred in our store about this book is because of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. It seems, as we have now been told, that they "broke" the story about how bookstores were keeping Unfit for Command hidden and refusing to sell it, because it is drastically anti-Kerry. Their listeners are supposed to go into bookstores and demand to have a copy sold to them. Hmmm....interesting. It is supposedly some sort of conspiracy and people are supposed to fight back against it. Hmmmm....again, interesting.

Like someone I listen to on the radio frequently says, "Now, for the rest of the story".

In our system, Unfit for Command had a publishing date set for September 1st. No big deal. Except as we all know, the group that wrote the book started promoting it back right after the Democratic Convention. Of course, as always happen in these situations, people saw them promoting it, so they thought it was available. But it wasn't. And wasn't slated to be till September (at least according to our system).

The people at the book's publisher, Regnery Publishing, probably thought "Crap. We need to get some of these things on the street ASAP." So, according to numbers we have seen now, they initially printed about 30-40000 copies. Not a bad amount for a small publishing house. Except for one thing. By the time they had gone to print, they had upwards of 60000 orders so we have been told for the book from all sources. Oops. We finally got out first shipment of the book on, I believe, the 12th. We got...9 copies. As soon as I opened the box, I took the book up front and put them right in the front of the store, on our New Non-Fiction table. We sold out on the 14th. The book actually lasted longer than I had originally thought.

We were told soon after that the publisher had sent out all the copies they had initially printed, and were in the process of printing more. They would send them out as soon as they had them. Good for them. I'm always glad to see a book find some success, whether I agree with what is in the book or not. We all have bills to pay and sales equals $$$.

The response from the people coming in my store from the point we sold out till now still turns my stomach. We have been accused of being Democratic hacks, liberal leaning idiots, thieves, biased conspirators, unfair, unbalanced, dishonorable, and many other horrible things as well. Just because we don't have a book in stock.

Trust me, if we had it, you would see it.

We got word earlier this week that we would see more books by Saturday the 28th. Whew. Finally. By the time we received our books on Friday the 27th, we had 13 special orders for it. We received 10 books. The much larger bookstore down the street, of which we are the mall division, had 80 special orders. They received 10 books. We are supposed to be receiving more by September 1st, ironically the original publishing date in our system. I sure hope so. My ulcer is killing me.

So there you have it. No big conspiracies. No ill intentions. Just a small publisher got overwhelmed by demand. It happens. But because of comments, untrue ones I might add, from people that wield more power than they would be willing to admit, bookstore employees like myself are getting treated like dirt for no other reason than cheap political ratings to their listeners. Does that hurt John Kerry, which I believe was their intentions in the first place? No. It hurts me and the people that I work with that are trying to do nothing else but concentrate on making sales and staying in business.

My store employs Democrats, Independents, and Republicans. But more importantly, it employs people. People whose lives were made harder by stupid comments that people take as gospel. People who are just trying to make a living.

When did it become acceptable to question a person's integrity and honor because of something as trivial as a book? When did it become alright to treat people with disrespect because you think you have a right too? When did the level of civility in society drop so damn low?