For two years during the pandemic I passed our local Waterstones which showed the Shon Faye book somewhere in the window. During that time several very successful feminist books were published yet not once were they displayed. I stopped buying from Waterstones then and I’ll never buy from them again.
Yes, I believe it's a policy. I have asked twice at Islington Waterstones. They have a big pile of the Shon Faye book and another book written by the mother of a 'transgirl'.
My local independent in Hackney has none and I think they have a member of staff who hides books. Three times I went in to ask for Trans by Helen Joyce. Every time they looked up on the computer and said there was stock but not to be found on the shelves. Once it was below the counter and the other two times it was hidden behind other books on the shelf. Again, every book written by a transidentifying man is displayed prominently on a table at the front of the shop. I don't shop there anymore; nor will I in Waterstones.
Sneaky, dishonest, authoritarian, anti- free speech, smug, self-righteous, small-minded, little cult-captured creeps. Bookstores as gatekeepers for an ideology! Another example of how “woke” ruins everything it touches.
I think it is disgraceful that waterstones an obviously captured member of the genderborg refuses point blank to stock hangars book but willstock Mr bergdorfs borg book, this is censorship and has no place in UK in 2023
It's a hell of a book. I haven't had chance to see whether the Darlington Waterstones has a copy, but last time I was in there it had a whole shelf of JKR books!
Hadley Freeman mentions in her recent Times article that this book is currently showing at no 8 in the Sunday Times non- fiction chart - (despite the fact that it almost wasn't published, as it was rejected by 22 publishers) . Similarly both Helen Joyce and Kathleen Stock were apparently also rejected by many publishing companies before having their respective manuscripts accepted.
My local Waterstones is frequented by a 'mystery' person who likes to come into the store and hide certain books, eg by Helen Joyce, so that even the sales assistants can't locate them within the store. Also, it is not only Waterstones which behaves oddly about stocking certain books, as I know of an Independent Bookshop in a neighbouring town which (in terms of Gender Ideology), has only ever displayed the Shon Faye book.
Pathetic. There are (at the last count) 1000 families preparing to take legal action against the Tavistock, so at what point do Waterstones employees begin to wonder if trying to cover up a medical scandal might not put them on the moral high ground after all? As well as being a futile exercise, given that the book is selling very well.
I deliberately place holds on all feminist books abd those such as this. Did so via online Library request. Our librarayvhas no IWD displaysxdespite me writing to council suggesting women to celebrate instead garish displaysvofctrans wmn and their Young sdult books. I made International Women's Day posters and stickersvon library printers and put them in several librariesxand on advertising bollards in central city and at strategic venues like vets and rugby club and sports places!
When JK Rowling's 'Troubled Blood' was published in June 21, I looked up the reviews on the Barnes and Noble website with a view to ordering it from them, along with several other books. Barnes and Noble were bought by the Waterstones company (Elliott Management Corporation) in 2019. There were many enthusiastic reviews for 'Troubled Blood', some were middling but seemed fair and reasonable, but then too there were the 1* reviews clearly written by incels-in-training abandoned by the US school system here during the pandemic and left too much to their own devices. Their gripes were along these lines:
"{A} Pedestal to Spew Hate Speech"
"This author (Rowling) has now taken their blatant disregard for queer and trans people and written a horrific 900+ monstrous ode to her transphobia."
"Author is well known for their transphobic agenda and now has published an unoriginal, tired trope to forward some anti-trans agenda."
"This book is incredibly boring and rather transphobic. I hated it and wouldn’t recommend it to my worst enemy."
Someone called 'JK It's Transphobia' from California really warms up to all this with
" I am disgusted that something like this actually got published and a little piece of my soul dies when I come across something this hateful. Die mad, JK."
And ThisShtSucks is succinct (and almost funny) with
"Pack it up buffalo bill".
I made several attempts to get the Barnes and Noble moderators to look into this and, going by the downvoting to all these ridiculous troll reviews, I wouldn't be surprised if other customers reported them to the B&N moderation team. I did receive a response from one person who seemed to understand the issue and claimed she would 'escalate' the complaint. There was some back and forth and then, nothing.
Finally, after getting nowhere with their customer service, I emailed James Daunt directly - or his office, at least - and pointed out that under its own terms and conditions, Barnes and Noble claims to have a "very robust moderations system...to ensure the integrity of our reviews". The reader review guidelines also stipulate that reviews should not include:
"Profanity, obscenities, or vulgarities",
"Comments that defame anyone",
"Comments focusing on the author".
I asked James Daunt if he and Barnes and Noble realised that they were being targeted with bogus and toxic reviews. I told James Daunt that when I first alerted customer service, I assumed that the moderation team was simply snoozing on the job. I told him that now though I was worried that the situation was actually worse than that and that Barnes and Noble's moderation team tacitly endorsed these views and that is why they were allowing them to stand. I told James Daunt that I believed that the B&N online service was providing a platform for the bullying, harassment, and abuse of women authors, in this instance, JK Rowling.
I never received even the most cursory reply from him or his office, not even an acknowledgement of my email. So, I re-sent maybe a week later. Then again, nothing.
As of today 7th March, 2023, all those aggressive, defamatory and irrelevant reviews still stand on the Barnes and Noble website.
I stopped visiting their US stores and stopped buying from them online. I use Amazon instead. All the hand wringing about old-fashioned bricks and mortar book stores... They don't deserve to survive if they treat their customers with such contempt.
No 8 in the top 10 in the Sunday Times Best Sellers list. Not bad considering how hard it is to track down a copy. I shall pop into my local Waterstones in the next week. It is on their website, but I think a real purchase sounds like fun.
Waterstones have set their stall out, and an already-established Bestseller, about the protection of children, and women's rights, is nowhere to be seen.
This is a conscious decision.
Much like mine...
To never shop with them - online or in-store - ever again.
I complained to Waterstones about this and they replied "The book has sold exceptionally well for us, and many shops have temporarily sold out, but we are expecting a fresh delivery which should land on our shelves very soon. Unfortunately, this does happen from time to time with books that sell much better than either we or the publisher expected. It is not due to any prejudice on our part against the subject matter of the books, but rather a misjudgement of the required stock level."
Many thanks to Subscriber A for his endeavours. It is shameful of Waterstones to act in this way. Their business is to make books available for purchase by customers. They are like high priests hiding the abuse of young children in the service of the Church of Gender Identity Ideology.
Quelle surprise.
At a very basic level this is poor business practice.
For two years during the pandemic I passed our local Waterstones which showed the Shon Faye book somewhere in the window. During that time several very successful feminist books were published yet not once were they displayed. I stopped buying from Waterstones then and I’ll never buy from them again.
It's not the role of bookshops to act as censors and decide what the public can and can't read. Who do these people think they are?
Yes, I believe it's a policy. I have asked twice at Islington Waterstones. They have a big pile of the Shon Faye book and another book written by the mother of a 'transgirl'.
My local independent in Hackney has none and I think they have a member of staff who hides books. Three times I went in to ask for Trans by Helen Joyce. Every time they looked up on the computer and said there was stock but not to be found on the shelves. Once it was below the counter and the other two times it was hidden behind other books on the shelf. Again, every book written by a transidentifying man is displayed prominently on a table at the front of the shop. I don't shop there anymore; nor will I in Waterstones.
Sneaky, dishonest, authoritarian, anti- free speech, smug, self-righteous, small-minded, little cult-captured creeps. Bookstores as gatekeepers for an ideology! Another example of how “woke” ruins everything it touches.
Strikes me that Waterstones (or the individual stores not making this book easily locatable by customers) is in breach of contract to the publishers?
I think it is disgraceful that waterstones an obviously captured member of the genderborg refuses point blank to stock hangars book but willstock Mr bergdorfs borg book, this is censorship and has no place in UK in 2023
It's a hell of a book. I haven't had chance to see whether the Darlington Waterstones has a copy, but last time I was in there it had a whole shelf of JKR books!
Hadley Freeman mentions in her recent Times article that this book is currently showing at no 8 in the Sunday Times non- fiction chart - (despite the fact that it almost wasn't published, as it was rejected by 22 publishers) . Similarly both Helen Joyce and Kathleen Stock were apparently also rejected by many publishing companies before having their respective manuscripts accepted.
My local Waterstones is frequented by a 'mystery' person who likes to come into the store and hide certain books, eg by Helen Joyce, so that even the sales assistants can't locate them within the store. Also, it is not only Waterstones which behaves oddly about stocking certain books, as I know of an Independent Bookshop in a neighbouring town which (in terms of Gender Ideology), has only ever displayed the Shon Faye book.
Pathetic. There are (at the last count) 1000 families preparing to take legal action against the Tavistock, so at what point do Waterstones employees begin to wonder if trying to cover up a medical scandal might not put them on the moral high ground after all? As well as being a futile exercise, given that the book is selling very well.
I deliberately place holds on all feminist books abd those such as this. Did so via online Library request. Our librarayvhas no IWD displaysxdespite me writing to council suggesting women to celebrate instead garish displaysvofctrans wmn and their Young sdult books. I made International Women's Day posters and stickersvon library printers and put them in several librariesxand on advertising bollards in central city and at strategic venues like vets and rugby club and sports places!
Slightly different but related take here.
When JK Rowling's 'Troubled Blood' was published in June 21, I looked up the reviews on the Barnes and Noble website with a view to ordering it from them, along with several other books. Barnes and Noble were bought by the Waterstones company (Elliott Management Corporation) in 2019. There were many enthusiastic reviews for 'Troubled Blood', some were middling but seemed fair and reasonable, but then too there were the 1* reviews clearly written by incels-in-training abandoned by the US school system here during the pandemic and left too much to their own devices. Their gripes were along these lines:
"{A} Pedestal to Spew Hate Speech"
"This author (Rowling) has now taken their blatant disregard for queer and trans people and written a horrific 900+ monstrous ode to her transphobia."
"Author is well known for their transphobic agenda and now has published an unoriginal, tired trope to forward some anti-trans agenda."
"This book is incredibly boring and rather transphobic. I hated it and wouldn’t recommend it to my worst enemy."
Someone called 'JK It's Transphobia' from California really warms up to all this with
" I am disgusted that something like this actually got published and a little piece of my soul dies when I come across something this hateful. Die mad, JK."
And ThisShtSucks is succinct (and almost funny) with
"Pack it up buffalo bill".
I made several attempts to get the Barnes and Noble moderators to look into this and, going by the downvoting to all these ridiculous troll reviews, I wouldn't be surprised if other customers reported them to the B&N moderation team. I did receive a response from one person who seemed to understand the issue and claimed she would 'escalate' the complaint. There was some back and forth and then, nothing.
Finally, after getting nowhere with their customer service, I emailed James Daunt directly - or his office, at least - and pointed out that under its own terms and conditions, Barnes and Noble claims to have a "very robust moderations system...to ensure the integrity of our reviews". The reader review guidelines also stipulate that reviews should not include:
"Profanity, obscenities, or vulgarities",
"Comments that defame anyone",
"Comments focusing on the author".
I asked James Daunt if he and Barnes and Noble realised that they were being targeted with bogus and toxic reviews. I told James Daunt that when I first alerted customer service, I assumed that the moderation team was simply snoozing on the job. I told him that now though I was worried that the situation was actually worse than that and that Barnes and Noble's moderation team tacitly endorsed these views and that is why they were allowing them to stand. I told James Daunt that I believed that the B&N online service was providing a platform for the bullying, harassment, and abuse of women authors, in this instance, JK Rowling.
I never received even the most cursory reply from him or his office, not even an acknowledgement of my email. So, I re-sent maybe a week later. Then again, nothing.
As of today 7th March, 2023, all those aggressive, defamatory and irrelevant reviews still stand on the Barnes and Noble website.
I stopped visiting their US stores and stopped buying from them online. I use Amazon instead. All the hand wringing about old-fashioned bricks and mortar book stores... They don't deserve to survive if they treat their customers with such contempt.
No 8 in the top 10 in the Sunday Times Best Sellers list. Not bad considering how hard it is to track down a copy. I shall pop into my local Waterstones in the next week. It is on their website, but I think a real purchase sounds like fun.
Waterstones have set their stall out, and an already-established Bestseller, about the protection of children, and women's rights, is nowhere to be seen.
This is a conscious decision.
Much like mine...
To never shop with them - online or in-store - ever again.
I complained to Waterstones about this and they replied "The book has sold exceptionally well for us, and many shops have temporarily sold out, but we are expecting a fresh delivery which should land on our shelves very soon. Unfortunately, this does happen from time to time with books that sell much better than either we or the publisher expected. It is not due to any prejudice on our part against the subject matter of the books, but rather a misjudgement of the required stock level."
Many thanks to Subscriber A for his endeavours. It is shameful of Waterstones to act in this way. Their business is to make books available for purchase by customers. They are like high priests hiding the abuse of young children in the service of the Church of Gender Identity Ideology.