"If I Wrote This"

As if you needed one more reason to patronize your small, neighborhood bookstore: After saying it would not stock copies of "If I Did It" in its stores, citing lack of customer demand, Barnes and Noble told The Associated Press on Thursday that it would indeed carry the book. In case you've forgotten this little gem, "If I Did It" portends to tell a "hypothetical" account of how "O.J." Simpson might have "murdered" his ex-wife and her "friend" Ronald Goldman. Harper Collins, showing a trace of shame, decided to pull the book before its release last November.
Now, "If I Did It" will be published September 13 by Beaufort Books on behalf of the Goldman family, which considers the book Simpson's confession. Over the summer, a federal bankruptcy judge awarded rights to the book to Goldman's family to help satisfy a thirty-eight million dollar wrongful death judgment against Simpson. Oops, sorry: "wrongful death judgement" against Simpson.
To paraphrase the Beach Boys, wouldn't it be nice if this was all being done with the truest, altruistic intentions? If that were the case, wouldn't Barnes and Noble be quick to laud this point, citing it in their publicity. The chain's spokeswoman, Mary Ellen Keating said: "We've been monitoring the pre-orders and customer requests and have concluded that enough customers have expressed interest in buying the book to warrant stocking it in our stores. We do not intend to promote the book but we will stock it in our stores because our customers are asking for it." Come on, lady - if you issue a press release saying that you aren't going to promote something, haven't you already promoted it?
Meanwhile, "The Juice" continues to work on his golf game somewhere in South Florida, having all but disowned the book himself, saying that it is largely the work of his ghostwriter, Pablo Fenjves. Maybe all this "lack" of attention will help "not" promote Pablo Fenjves' other books, including "A Million Little Lies".