You know, come to think of it, my friend and co-author @kevinguilfoile had our book, "My First Presidentiary: A Scrapbook of George W. Bush" "cancelled" because of politics back in 2001. Hear me out. amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg…
The book was a rather gentle parody of GW Bush, released right around the inauguration in 2001. It sold reasonably well, was a #1 Washington Post best seller, a campus best seller, and was a nice little success story.
After 9/11, every single remaining copy, 10's of thousands of them, were returned from bookstores to the publishers because it was decided, sensibly, that the public appetite for a parody of the president in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on American soil was limited.
The royalty statement for 4th quarter of 2001 was something else, I'll tell you what. Sometime in November I remember getting notice that they were taking the book out of print, and we could buy as many copies as we wanted for $1 a piece.
Before the year was out, every returned copy was "pulped," literally destroyed because of some law that taxes the inventory, which incentivizes publishers to get rid of books they think won't sell.
It was disappointing, but I don't think either of us questioned it for a second. The thought of peddling the book after 9/11 seemed wrong. With time, that sense has faded, but so had the moment for the book, oh well.
If taking a book out of print is getting cancelled, I've been cancelled lots of times by multiple publishers, without even having a chance to protest!
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