Is Jon and Kate book still appropriate?

Christian publisher Zondervan seemed to have a sure winner with this one: plans to publish "Love is in the Mix: Making Meals into Memories" by Kate Gosselin this fall. Then Jon and Kate announced they were getting divorced. Terms like "adultery" and "neglectful parenting" were added to the mix and suddenly the project looked a lot less promising.

Certainly the publisher's promise that the book would be "an inside look at one of America's most close-knit families" started to sound pretty hollow after the June 22 television broadcast on which the reality show stars explained that they were separating. So now what happens to the book, scheduled for release in November?

Maureen "Moe" Girkins, CEO of Zondervan, has said the company plans to "work with Kate to reassess the schedule for her next book."

But some people think it's time to shelve the book. Tim Penning, assistant professor of communications at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, told USA Today that he thinks the publisher is probably going to need to hold off.

"It would be a fine line for them to try to sell this book with the kind of revelations that have happened," Penning, who teaches public relations, told USA Today. "I think the public generally understands that it was a good idea, but times have changed. Zondervan has to think about not just this product, but their brand and their reputation. They should also be thinking about Jon and Kate, too."

It would not, however, be an easy book to abandon. The previous two titles from the Gosselin family, "Multiple Blessings: Surviving to Thriving with Twins and Sextuplets," and the picture book "Eight Little Faces," both also published by Zondervan, were bestsellers.

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