Credited by US publishers with being one of the biggest sales drivers in the business, Oprah Winfrey’s book club began as a segment on her television talk show in 1996 and she initially picked new novels.
But she suspended the club in April 2002, before relaunching in June 2003 with classics such as John Steinbeck’s East of Eden and Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.
Earlier this year, a group of novelists wrote Winfrey a letter begging her to resume picking living authors, and finally she has relented.
Her latest pick announced on her web site was A Million Little Pieces, a memoir by James Frey about the author’s time at a rehabilitation centre for alcohol and drug addiction, published by Random House imprint Anchor Books.
"It’s a radical departure," Winfrey said on her show. "It’s not a classic and it is also not fiction but a bold choice … it’s a gut-wrenching memoir."
Among the reasons the chat show host gave for her change of heart was that she could chat to living authors and interview them on her popular daytime show.
The book was already the No 1 best seller on online book retailer Amazon.com.
An Oprah’s Book Club logo on a book’s cover has helped many of her picks garner sales of more than a million copies — a huge amount given that in 2004 only eight fiction and eight non-fiction books sold more than one million copies in the United States, according to Publishers Weekly.”>Oprah turns producer – People – Entertainment – theage.com.au: “Oprah has returned to picking living authors for her book club.
Credited by US publishers with being one of the biggest sales drivers in the business, Oprah Winfrey’s book club began as a segment on her television talk show in 1996 and she initially picked new novels.
But she suspended the club in April 2002, before relaunching in June 2003 with classics such as John Steinbeck’s East of Eden and Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.
Earlier this year, a group of novelists wrote Winfrey a letter begging her to resume picking living authors, and finally she has relented.
Her latest pick announced on her web site was A Million Little Pieces, a memoir by James Frey about the author’s time at a rehabilitation centre for alcohol and drug addiction, published by Random House imprint Anchor Books.
‘It’s a radical departure,’ Winfrey said on her show. ‘It’s not a classic and it is also not fiction but a bold choice … it’s a gut-wrenching memoir.’
Among the reasons the chat show host gave for her change of heart was that she could chat to living authors and interview them on her popular daytime show.
The book was already the No 1 best seller on online book retailer Amazon.com.
An Oprah’s Book Club logo on a book’s cover has helped many of her picks garner sales of more than a million copies — a huge amount given that in 2004 only eight fiction and eight non-fiction books sold more than one million copies in the United States, according to Publishers Weekly.”
