Oprah's Book Club

▪ 1998

      In 1996 top-rated daytime television talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, the most financially successful female star on TV, expanded her media empire into the realm of publishing with the introduction of Oprah's Book Club. In an effort to restructure "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and because she was a voracious reader herself and wanted to "get the whole country [the U.S.] reading again," Winfrey began endorsing books she felt were of literary merit. The concept quickly took flight, increasing the show's audience to some 20 million viewers, propelling sales of the book-club selections into the stratosphere, and making Winfrey a literary tastemaker with a newfound ability to spark the interest of nonreaders.

      Each month Winfrey chose a book, often fiction, and presented it to her audience, allowing sufficient time (two to four weeks) to read the selection thoroughly. The author of the book then appeared on the show to discuss the work with a small group of the readers. The venues for the discussions were often cozy and comfortable, ranging from dinner at Winfrey's home to an all-female slumber party at author Maya Angelou's house. Afterward, the author would often hold a discussion of the book on-line on the Internet as well.

      On the basis of daytime television standards, Winfrey's book selections might seem daunting—most were intense, stark dramas. The first selection was the somewhat obscure The Deep End of the Ocean, a heart-wrenching story about a Midwestern family coping with the disappearance of a child. Written by first-time novelist Jacquelyn Mitchard, the book had a first-run printing of 100,000 copies. After Winfrey touted the work in her club, however, an additional 640,000 copies were printed. Other recommendations included Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone, a hard-hitting story about an overweight rape victim; Ursula Hegi's Stones from the River, the story of a dwarf ostracized in a small town in Nazi Germany; and Jane Hamilton's award-winning novel The Book of Ruth, a backlist title that sold 750,000 additional copies.

      Winfrey's second pick, Toni Morrison's critically acclaimed Song of Solomon, was a powerful novel about a Southern black man's search for his identity. Though a backlist title, Song of Solomon burst back onto bookstore shelves with renewed vigour once it had been announced as a club selection; an additional 870,000 copies were sold. Winfrey's book-club endorsements ensured instant success; an additional 10 million copies of her first eight selections were sold.

      Publishing companies, though pleased by the burgeoning sales, were unprepared for the overwhelming interest in Winfrey's selections. To avoid stock shortages, she began shipping editions to warehouses wrapped in covers that read "Untitled Oprah's Book Club #__." Winfrey then decided to notify publishers ahead of time but asked that in return they donate 10,000 copies of her book-of-the-month selection to libraries.

      Winfrey also bought film rights to a number of these books, which promised to make the stories accessible to an even greater portion of the population. She insisted, however, that her financial stake in these films would not influence her club selections.

JACKIE ORIHILL

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