Publisher Simon & Schuster defended its decision to make a publishing deal with former Vice President Mike Pence, citing its duty to “publish, not cancel.”
President and CEO Jonathan Karp sent a letter to his employees on Tuesday, responding to a petition circulated by staff to have the book deal canceled. The announcement contrasts recent decisions by the company to cancel other book deals with authors deemed controversial by some.
“As a publisher in this polarized era, we have experienced outrage from both sides of the political divide and from different constituencies and groups,” he said in the letter that was obtained by the Washington Examiner. “But we come to work each day to publish, not cancel, which is the most extreme decision a publisher can make, and one that runs counter to the very core of our mission to publish a diversity of voices and perspectives. We will, therefore, proceed in our publishing agreement with Vice President Mike Pence.”
PENCE TO WRITE TWO-PART AUTOBIOGRAPHY PUBLISHED BY SIMON & SCHUSTER
Simon & Schuster announced the book deal with Pence in an April 7 statement. The company said the former vice president will write a two-book autobiography focused on how he went from growing up in Indiana to becoming the vice president. The first part is tentatively scheduled to be released in 2023.
A petition said to have been created by the “workforce of S&S” objected to the decision. It is unclear how many people signed the petition or when it was started.
“By choosing to publish Mike Pence, Simon & Schuster is generating wealth for a central figure of a presidency that unequivocally advocated for racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Blackness, xenophobia, misogyny, ableism, islamophobia, antisemitism, and violence,” the online petition read. “This is not a difference of opinions; this is legitimizing bigotry.”
The petition demanded the publishing company revoke the deal, not make any other deals with other former Trump administration officials, end its distribution deal with Post Hill Press (a publisher that focuses on conservative authors), and “commit to ongoing reevaluations of all clients, authors, distribution deals, and all other financial commitments that promote white supremacist content and/or harm the aforementioned marginalized communities.”
In Tuesday’s letter, Karp acknowledged the company’s decision to cancel a book deal with Jonathan Mattingly, one of the officers who shot Breonna Taylor.
“That decision was immediate, unprecedented, and responsive to the concerns we heard from you and our authors,” he said. “At the same time, we have contractual obligations and must continue to respect the terms of our agreements with our client publishers.”
The publisher also cut ties with Sen. Josh Hawley and his book deal on Jan. 7, the day after the riot at the Capitol.
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“After witnessing the disturbing, deadly insurrection that took place on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., Simon & Schuster has decided to cancel publication of Senator Josh Hawley’s forthcoming book, THE TYRANNY OF BIG TECH,” the company said in a statement. “We did not come to this decision lightly. As a publisher it will always be our mission to amplify a variety of voices and viewpoints: at the same time we take seriously our larger public responsibility as citizens, and cannot support Senator Hawley after his role in what became a dangerous threat to our democracy and freedom.”
“This could not be more Orwellian,” Hawley responsed at the time. “Simon & Schuster is canceling my contract because I was representing my constituents, leading a debate on the Senate floor on voter integrity, which they have now decided to redefine as sedition.”
