Independent booksellers in the US have described the decision to initially release comedian John Oliver’s parody title about vice president Mike Pence’s rabbit through Amazon as “a slap in the face”.
A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, a picture book written by Jill Twiss that recounts how Pence’s rabbit falls in love with a male bunny, was an immediate hit, reaching No 1 on Amazon. Publisher Chronicle Books has said it is now printing 400,000 copies, up from an initial figure of 40,000. Dedicated “to every bunny who has ever felt different”, Oliver’s title was released in response to – and just before – Pence’s daughter Charlotte and wife Karen’s Marlon Bundo’s A Day in the Life of the Vice President, which is currently No 48 on Amazon. Pence has said that gay marriage will lead to the “deterioration of the family” and “societal collapse”. Proceeds from Oliver’s book will go to Aids United and the LGBTQ charity the Trevor Project.
But beleaguered independents in America have slammed the late-night television show host’s decision to point viewers towards Amazon for purchase when initially announcing the surprise publication. Booksellers told US book trade magazine Publishers Weekly that they had not been informed about the title.
“I didn’t even know there was a vice-presidential bunny,” New Hampshire bookseller Laura Cummings, owner of White Birch Books in North Conway, told the magazine.
In an open letter, the Golden Notebook Bookstore in Woodstock’s owner James Conrad called the Amazon-only release “a slap in the face”. “I am a gay man who co-owns an independent bookstore,” he wrote. “These stores, in the tradition of gay and lesbian bookstores that are now nearly extinct, tirelessly work to promote a range of issues from freedom of speech, women’s rights, immigration issues, diversity – I can go on. We donate money, public space and our heart to causes on a daily basis.”
Chronicle’s president Tyrrell Mahoney apologised to independent booksellers, telling them: “We had to ensure that the book was a complete surprise for the Last Week Tonight with John Oliver audience,” and so “ultimately agreed to make the book available for purchase at the time of the on-air surprise by allocating a percentage of the print run to Amazon and making the rest of the first print run available to all our other retailers as soon as possible”.
But independents told Publishers Weekly that they were used to respecting embargos, and would have kept the secret. “Indie bookstores are used to taking all necessary steps to protect the confidentiality of title information, including signing of affidavits, and would certainly have done that in this instance given the chance,” said chief executive of the American Booksellers Association, Oren Teicher. “ABA firmly believes that our industry is stronger when we can all compete on a level playing field, and, conversely, that providing one channel a competitive advantage is, in the end, bad for everyone.”
The title’s dedicated website now directs customers towards a range of booksellers, with independents, chains and Amazon among its options. It is, however, currently out of stock at both Amazon and independent bookshop site IndieBound, as Chronicle rushes through its latest reprint.
