Dear Readers for Accountability,

We have received your latest note and would like to engage substantively, productively, and in good faith with you. We believe, and hope you agree, that we have much more in common than not. Most importantly, we share your unbending commitment to equitable treatment and standing against Islamophobia, antisemitism, and every form of discrimination.

The suffering in Gaza is heartbreaking, and we too have the fierce hope that there can be a quick resolution without more violence.

As a book publisher, we denounce racism and exclusion in all forms, which is one of the reasons we’ve been actively fighting book bans. We stand for promoting diverse perspectives and encouraging open dialogue, and we have joined numerous legal efforts to stand up for intellectual freedom, including joining legal actions to support libraries and challenge book banning.

In that spirit, we want to address your core concerns by sharing with you some new initiatives designed to help prevent harmful incidents and discussing what we feel are important and significant improvements at SMP. Finally, we would like to provide more specific information about how we protect the privacy of those in our early readers and influencer programs.

New Initiatives:

• We are in the process of expanding our website to provide for more meaningful engagement with our Early Readers, including implementation of a process for receiving feedback and empowering our Early Readers to make choices about what they receive from us. We are continually examining our processes to reflect the preferences of the influencers we work with.
• We’ve updated our social media policy to reinforce SMP’s commitment to fostering a positive online presence and maintaining the highest standards of professionalism and integrity across all social media channels.
• Our Marketing employees have received social media training with a third party to ensure our SMP posts are aligned to our values and we will continue to deliver training in furtherance of this goal.
• We are working with a third-party facilitator to conduct DEI training focused on mitigating implicit bias.
• As part of our multicultural programming, we will be delivering Marketing specific training focused on embracing diverse perspectives.
• We are in the process of appointing a head of influencer relations to oversee the Early Reader program to ensure that it is executed in the most equitable manner and address issues as they arise.
• We’ve improved the equitability of our Early Reader program for pre-publication access to books. We're making the digital review copies of our books available to everyone within the Early Reader program. Early readers now receive a monthly email with pre-approved widgets for upcoming books. The only books not included are those that may be embargoed or don't have digital ARCs. Again, you can read more about the Early Reader program here.
• We remain limited by quantity when it comes to printed ARCs and books, and we prioritize sharing those with those registered in the Early Reader program. Anyone not in the program is encouraged to bookmark this page or visit our NetGalley catalog to request titles.

Privacy

• The information the Early Readers give us is housed in a secure cloud-based database restricted to only four people. Others are granted provisional and temporary access based on subject matter related to the books they represent.
• The portal which houses all of our Early Readers data lives on our corporate server, which can only be accessed through a company login and our VPN.
• Every year, we conduct compliance training to underscore the importance of securing personal data.

We hope this provides much of the information you were hoping to discover. We have improved the equitability of the SMP Early Readers, outlined our data privacy protections, and, most importantly, are implementing new initiatives designed to avoid issues in the future. We welcome ongoing communication.

Jennifer Enderlin
President & Publisher
St. Martin’s Publishing Group