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Sales of the whistleblowing memoir Careless People increased by more than 300% in the UK the week after its author was “silenced” during an appearance at Hay festival following legal action by Meta, the subject of the book.
Sarah Wynn-Williams – who between 2011 and 2017 served as the director of global public policy at what was then called Facebook – sat on stage but did not speak during her hour-long appearance on 31 May on the advice of her lawyer. She appeared alongside the journalist Carole Cadwalladr and academic Tim Wu.
The sales boost – 304.5% week-on-week – has nudged the book, published last March, to the number one spot in the paperback nonfiction chart.
Upon publication, Meta obtained an order blocking Wynn-Williams from promoting her book, which accuses the company of a toxic internal culture and manipulative political influence. Meta has described the book as “a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives”.
In March, Meta filed a sanctions motion claiming that Wynn-Williams violates the order any time she makes an appearance in a place “where she should know that her book is available for sale and her presence might draw attention to it”, according to a letter from her lawyers sent to Hay festival on 30 May. “Meta also said attending the Hay festival would violate the order because the Hay festival’s ‘promotional materials include a direct link to Browse the Festival bookshop, … which offers Careless People for sale’.”
The letter asked Hay festival to “take all reasonable steps to ensure that Careless People is not sold at or through any festival bookshop, book-signing schedule, point-of-sale mechanism, or online link through which sales could be attributed to Ms Wynn-Williams’s appearance at the festival”.
Pan Macmillan said that since publication, more than 140,000 copies of Careless People have been sold across all formats in the UK.
Wynn-Williams’ “courageous, silent appearance at Hay festival has clearly resonated with a huge number of people, who want to read her story and make up their own minds”, said Mike Harpley, Wynn-Williams’ editor and nonfiction publisher at Pan Macmillan.
He added that the publisher is grateful to the public “for refusing to accept what amounts to corporate censorship. By using legal threats to restrict her appearance on a panel, Meta instead drew massive public attention to what is a brilliant, deeply important book”.
At the event, Wynn-Williams was unable to nod or shake her head. At the end, she received a standing ovation, and the event generated widespread press coverage.
“Wynn-Williams was brave enough to get her book out there, despite the economic threats and damage inflicted,” wrote her co-panellist Wu in the Guardian on Tuesday. “The company is plainly seeking to make an example of her; to threaten financial ruin and warn off other would-be critics who may be sitting in the wings.”
