I'm guessing that Reed's had no idea what the book was about when they scheduled the signing, and certainly didn't realize it was so divisive. The title of the book doesn't really give much of a hint of the contents, unless you're a message board follower. I suspect that they were just trying to help out a first-time Mississippi author, and only realized what they'd done in scheduling the signing when the Bear fans called. Not so sure they "caved under pressure" so much as they decided they'd made a mistake.