St. Martin's Press Boycott
From the Readers for Accountability Toolkit:
The boycott of St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books, and other related imprints is a direct response to the publisher’s lack of accountability regarding a) statements made by an employee in their marketing department and b) their failure to respond to concerns about possible systemic issues within the department.
This employee, who we will not name, posted Islamophobic, queerphobic, and anti-Palestinian content on their personal (but public) social media. This included pinkwashing and use of the term “pallywood” which is used to imply that videos of Palestinians being murdered or brutalized by Israeli soldiers are fakes.
This content was shared in Instagram stories and was brought to our attention by Palestinian activist and content creator @vivafalastinleen.
Leen noted that while she is on the St. Martin's Press influencer list, she never seemed to receive any of the ARCs she requested. Other Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian creators had previously noted the same thing.
Leen further noticed that her white counterparts, with a comparable or smaller following, would receive these ARCS regularly and without issue. She began to question if this was a symptom of the employee's bigotry or perhaps a systemic issue within the marketing department at this publisher when she was made aware of the posts shared by this employee.
Leen attempted to reach out to St. Martin's Press when the employee's posts came to light, but struggled to receive a response and was largely ignored. Other influencers and content creators reached out as well with similar results. However, Leen did eventually receive an email from Brant Janeway.
The response, however, was dismissive and defensive with no action being taken to investigate.
The boycott was officially enacted after ten days of radio silence from St. Martin's Press and Wednesday books. During those ten days, content creators were emailing, DMing, commenting, and making videos to demand that St. Martin's Press make a statement to no avail.
As such, Leen created a video that provided other creators with context for the boycott. This video also included a large number of screenshots and significant context explaining why those screenshots are so dangerous. Twitter likes were also included to provide evidence of how deep the employee's bigotry runs.
R4A have since then assisted in bringing attention to this issue by providing education and resources for the boycott. This includes a petition outlining our demands and urging St. Martin’s Press to hold their staff accountable to the MacMillan Code of Conduct.
While St. Martin’s Press has largely remained silent despite resuming posting like normal on their socials, they did take the time to unfollow two prominent BIPOC creators within the community including @satrayreads and @vivafalastinleen.
An email was sent from R4A to St. Martin’s Press on 12/14/23 outlining our concerns and issues with St. Martin’s Press and a response was received on 12/15/23. This response failed to meet the demands of the boycott and was heavily focused on equitable ARC distribution. As such, the boycott continues and further updates will be shared as the situation develops.
This boycott means that while you can buy and read books published by St. Martin's Press and its imprints, you should not platform this. This means not marking them as 'read' or 'reading' on Goodreads, not reviewing them, and not posting them on social media. Yes, even Tumblr. To learn more about this boycott, check out Readers for Accountability on Instagram, or this article by Prism Reports.
Participation:
Participating in the St. Martin's Press boycott can be as simple as no longer promoting books from St. Martin's Press or related imprints on your social media, websites, and review spaces. Participants are asked to withhold ALL reviews of these books until demands are met, including on Goodreads and NetGalley. Additionally, we are asking that participants avoid promoting these books in any way during this time. This includes master lists, reading recaps, and other similar posts. However, readers can still purchase and read these books in order to reduce harm done to the authors.
Additionally, participants are encouraged to share posts about the boycott, make their own posts, and utilize the templates and graphics we have provided you to keep the momentum going.
Research a book's publisher before you post about it, even here on Tumblr. If it is published by St. Martin's Press or one of its imprints (Wednesday Books, Castle Point Books, St. Martin's Essential, Minotaur Books, and St. Martin's Griffin), do not platform it.
Check out @/readersforaccountability on Instagram for more information. All text here aside from the final indented paragraph comes from their toolkit, which includes more information and more ways you can help the people of Palestine.
