In Ottawa, the Steyn book is available neither at Chapters nor at such independent bookstores as Nicholas Hoare. A clerk at the Nicholas Hoare bookstore said the book has been difficult to obtain for Canadian retailers.
“Our speculation is that they’re keeping the book in stock in the States because of the demand there,” said the clerk, who identified herself as Stephanie.
A Canadian citizen, Mr. Steyn lives in New Hampshire with his wife and three children. He is a former National Post columnist and now writes for the Atlantic Monthly, Maclean’s and the Western Standard, among other publications.
In an e-mail exchange, Mr. Steyn yesterday said the excuses of Canadian book sellers, who insisted there was no demand for his book, are increasingly hilarious.
In Canada, he said, there are enough copies of Jules Carlysle’s Dumbass “to carpet the Arctic Circle,” but no one thought enough of his book to order sufficient copies.
“I can understand that there are products one might consider it prudent to restrict distribution of — certain Canadian novels spring to mind — but, oddly enough, my publishers prefer the old-fashioned model: They’re in the bookselling business not the book-withholding business.
“My advice to Canadian readers is drive over to the Buffalo Barnes & Noble and smuggle it back in, cunningly hidden under the Algerian terrorist in the back seat.”
Steyn has sold enough copies through his website to make America Alone a Canadian bestseller. He talks about the book in an interview at National Review.
Indigo books are reporting a 1 million loss for the last quarter. We conservatives fight back with our wallets.
I was unable to find a copy in Nanaimo book stores so I ordered Steyn’s book from Amazon … no problemo … I ordered Bill O’Reilly’s “Culture Warrior at the same time which got me free shipping.
Why give these Canadian censorshop oriented book sellers you money when you can send it to the USA?
I noted how insenced a Vancouver book store Little Sister was when they had their homosexual and lesbian oreiented books held up at the border.
They railed relentlessly about this and yet their own Lefties who happen to own the large book retail store do the same to Steyn and others, they think this is perfectly fine and lie through their teeth about it.
It is not possible nowadays to stop the flow of information … God Bless the Internet and Amazon.com.
Mary T — That’s exactly how I show my discontent, I don’t buy from them. That is in fact how I exercise my democratic proxy with numerous other products or particular Canadian suppliers/owners I disagree with. I buy local or Western Canadian whenever possible.
Buy it direct at http://www.Steynonline.com.
They have all kinds of other stuff as well.
Great Christmas presents!
I was just downtown in Edmonton for the Red Friday rally and while I was there I dropped into Smithbooks to ask if they had ‘America Alone’ in stock. Of course, they didn’t. They had to look it up on their computer and they told me it was apparently available to order, but with no indication as to how long the order would take. I checked with Chapters last week. They didn’t have it in stock and it was not available to order. In fact they claimed not to have heard of it.
I will not buy books at Chapters again.
I didn’t even bother to check at Greenwood’s since I’m not prepared to deal with the smirking response that one gets from the staff there whenever one enquires about a book that doesn’t toe the leftist line.
I have requested the Edmonton Public Library to obtain the book and they replied that they would acquire it. It is now showing on their catalog as ‘On Order’ and I am about 10th in line on the waitlist for the book. I hope they ordered it through Mark’s website.
OT, but the post about the Red Friday rally seems to have disappeared. As soon as I heard about it, at 11:25 this morning, I hopped on a bus and went downtown to Churchill Square. Thanks, Kate, for the heads up. I estimated that there were about 200 to 300 people in attendance, in spite of the cold and snow. Many Mounties in red serge were there as well as a good representation from the armed forces.
I accidentally was exposed to the weekend leftist anti-war march as I was leaving the Old Scona Farmers Market last Saturday. It was so small that it passed me in less than a minute. The contrast between the two events was quite significant. The march on Saturday was basically a lot of mindless chanting, very much like a ’60s rally, with placards covering just about any cause you would care to name. The Red Friday rally was polite, enthusiastic and to the point without being dominated by zealots. It was covered by all the media so it should be on the news tonight.
Off Topic. Why would CBC even try to put this small picture on for people to see when it is too small to see the features.
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2006/11/03/tech-cassini.html
Golly, don’t you think a Conservative like Heather Reisman would want the most eagerly-awaited conservative book of the year in heavy stock in every store? Couldn’t she make it one of “Heather’s Picks”, seeing as she’s now a Conservative? She must think it’s a Liberal book because the cover is red. It’s got to be a mistake, because she’s now a true Conservative.
/s
I’m looking forward to reading my copy which I just received today from Amazon.ca.
I had tried for the last couple of weeks to get a copy from assorted bookstores here in Toronto, to no avail. The usual excuse for not having it in stock was that it was not out yet. Something’s definitely fishy about this. Whatever their reason for not stocking it, I am now one satisfied customer of Amazon.ca.
I called McNalley Robinson in Saskatoon and they have it on order.
Ordered mine from Mark’s website. My autographed copy arrived in less than two weeks. I never buy anything from Chapters. I’ll shop there, see what I like and order it from Amazon.com.
“no demand”
“no supply”
“cater to the american market”
“shipping problems”
bla bla bla.
lies. all lies.
ms reisman doesnt even have the decency and integrity to say straight out she refuses to stock the book.
How in Canada can conservatives fight back.Let’s let Indigo goes down the tube.Very little there for the Government to bail out as they bit off more than they could chew.After they took over Chapter’s,I figured they be on the way down.But a million here a million there no problem when you have deep pockets.
After a week of being unable to find a single copy in any bookstore in Victoria, I ordered two copies from Amazon.ca. They arrived in less than a week with free shipping. Fantastic service!
Pathetic show by Chapters/Indigo/Coles/Smith/… and every other local bookstore I went to looking for AA. It’s now three weeks since its release and there hasn’t been one copy available.
From now on Amazon.ca gets ALL my book business.
I tried to purchase the book at the Saskatoon McNally-Robinson on the Friday after it was released. They told me that they had sold out (of the one copy they ordered???) and that more were on order. I was assured that it would only be a week to ten days. That was over two weeks ago and nothing. So, I ordered the book from Amazon.ca a couple of days ago and it arrived today. (I also ordered John Stossel’s newest book for free shipping.)
I boycotted McNally-Robinson for about 7 months after they wouldn’t carry the Western Standard witht the Mohammed cartoons. I weakened under the influence of my daughters who love their children’s section. Maybe I should have stayed the course or perhaps I should go in every few days and request conservative books each time.
Do you think they would notice if we rearranged shelves to more prominantly feature certian books?
Anyone surprised by this hasn’t tried to buy a firearms related magazine in Canada lately. The big chains don’t carry them. At all.
Reason cited? No demand.
When they dropped all gun mags I snipped my Chapters/Indigo card and mailed it to the president of the company, with a nice note explaining my feelings on the matter.
So here we have a conservative book getting the same treatment as Guns and Ammo. Can’t snip the card twice I guess.
Chapters thinks they are the only game in town, but it just ain’t so. Thank God for Amazon and subscriptions. And Kate!
thank the lord for the internet..yet again. there was a time when I frequented bookstores because I like books! but when they boycott books then I boycott bookstores.
Indigo is not ‘boycotting’ Steyn
tinyurl.com/yzoqet
From the National Post article: “A Canadian citizen, Mr. Steyn lives in New Hampshire with his wife and three children. He is a former National Post columnist and now writes for the Atlantic Monthly, Macleans and the Western Standard…”
a) No wonder he lives in New Hampshire. WHY would he live in Canada, when his successes have pretty much all been acknowledged in the States and England…oh, yes, in Australia too…BUT NOT CANADA?
b) One of the reasons I was a faithful reader of the NP was Mark Steyn’s rapier and wicked wit, skewing the pomposities of both the “natural reigning party” of Canada and our insufferable MSM.
What does the NP decide to do, when Iggy Asper (may he rest in peace), takes over the paper? Get rid of Mark Steyn, Christie Blatchford, and pretty much David Frum, David Warren, et al.
As a dear octegenarian friend of mine is fond of saying, “POT”: Pi** on them.
I was told by Indigo at Bloor and Bay last week that they have “100 America Alone books ON ORDER.” Yup. Right on the bit, folks: Well pi** on you.
Censorship is alive and well in the True North Strong and Free.
What’s up, do you think?
I typed both of the links mentioned above into my Google search engine, and I was informed both times that my “search did not match any documents.”
‘Anyone else have this problem? Is Google “censoring” attempts to open links coming from SDA? Have I been entertaining too many conspiracy theories in this War of Words?
‘been around the block:
The Aspers didn’t “get rid” of Mark Steyn. He published a column in the paper prior to his departure stating he would be leaving because of the way the editor, Ken Whyte, had been treated. The reason the Aspers got rid of (as you put it) a lot of staff was because the paper had been losing a pile of money – that was the reason Conrad Black sold it.
BTW – I’ve been a NP subscriber from the first day.
This is Chapters et al being passive aggressive. Booksellers such as Chapters over order then return books to tthe publisher at no charge. They under order Steyn while over ordering the usual Canadian crap no one buys.
Call it what you, it amounts to a ban.
I ordered from Amazon also. So there, Chapters.
enough
ordered mine from Amazon, about half read;
great book!
John B says, “The reason the Aspers got rid of (as you put it) a lot of staff [at the National Post] was because the paper had been losing a pile of money – that was the reason Conrad Black sold it.”
I don’t think Mark Steyn was the reason that the NP was losing money. It’s well known that the Aspers are big Librano supporters. Is it just a coincidence that the Blatch, Steyn, Frum, Warren, et al. stopped writing for the NP, or did it, by any chance, have anything at all to do with their rather consistent LPC/Chretien/Martin/Gagliano bashing–of which I, and I suspect many other long-suffering Canadians, approved of?
The NP lost me and my husband as regular subscribers and readers.
Only 2 Chapters stores in Edmonton were carrying Paul Wells’ new book “Right Side Up.” I ended up getting it from Audrey’s (an independent), but was amused that the liberal/ndp-leaning clerk (I was there the day she used her brand-spanking-new credit card to buy Bush-bashing books) had shelved them under “Canadiana” vs. “New Releases.”
Interesting. Forgot to check on Steyn’s book, will have to go back next week.
If I may weigh in…
Chapters claims not to buy from American distributors. My book is distributed via Ingram. They are the largest distributor in the world (so they said). I don’t know how Chapters stays in business. I put my book on consignment with them and that’s the only way I managed to get it into stores. It’s sold out every time…they still won’t order it directly. I went to a couple Canadian distributors just to try to access Chapters and of course, the distributors wouldn’t take my book because…wait for it….”you are already working with Ingram, what do you need us for?” It’s not about boycotting or anything personal — Chapters is not organized enough for that. It’s strictly dumb beaurocracy and bad business practices. …Thanks I feel better for having the chance to vent!
Bill MacLean ‘Christmas presents!’
I don’t thing Chapters lets the word enter their stores.
I got mine from steynonline does that bump mark up the CDN charts or the US ones?
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters/story.html?id=bc4caec5-0eef-4938-9b81-a5b0108db5f4
This from the people who didn’t sell the western standard. they aren’t boycotting him just ruining his sales.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Indigo is not ‘boycotting’ Steyn
National Post
Published: Saturday, November 04, 2006
Re: Steyn’s Book Can’t Be Found In Canada, Nov. 3.
Charges that Indigo is “boycotting” Mark Steyn’s book, America Alone, are ludicrous. Mr. Steyn’s book was for sale at Indigo’s channels in September of this year and it promptly sold out. Indeed we should have purchased more initially but the moment we realized the error, we immediately placed a reorder for several thousand more books. As of this moment, we, as well as most other book retailers in Canada, are still awaiting new copies from the publisher, which we are told will arrive in mid-November.
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.
Wonder what her email is????