For this week's prompt, I looked at the Oprah's Book Club article about the spike in popularity of books Oprah suggested on her show and added to her book club list from September 1996 to April 2002. Celebrity-endorsed books almost always have an upswing in popularity after they are mentioned or recommended by the celebrities. People want to read what famous people are reading, or they might simply find the book interesting after they hear about it.
As I was reading the article, I was amazed at the amount of effort that Butler, Cowan, and Nilsson must have put in to come up with all of the statistics cited in the article. It is easy to see how when one question was answered, such as what was the average rank of each Oprah-recommended title per year, it led to another question, such as how long did each of the Oprah-recommended books last in the top 150 each year, which led to even more questions, such as how did the Oprah-recommended titles compare to other top 150 books over the years. The authors did an excellent job on the article, and I highly recommend looking through it, even if you do not understand all of the statistic terms.
In the end, though, the author's introduction statement remains true, "we present evidence that strongly implies the conventional wisdom is correct: Oprah’s TV picks helped sell the books she endorsed" (Butler, Cowan, Nilsson, 2005, p. 23). It makes sense that celebrity-endorsed books would sell, if only for the fact that more people know of their existence after the celebrity talked about it than before. While this is conventional wisdom, the evidence in this Oprah's Book Club article supports it as well.
Reference:
Butler, R., Cowan, B., & Nilsson, S. (2005). From Obscurity to Bestseller: Examining the Impact of Oprah's Book Club Selections. Publishing Research Quarterly, 20(4), 23-34. Retrieved from EBSCOhost at http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=16553116&site=ehost-live
With such huge spikes in book sells after endorsing a book, it makes me wonder if Oprah Winfrey (or an other celebrity endorsing a book) sees some of that profit. It makes me wary to trust their recommendations because I don't know the reasons behind their choice. Everything is tied so closely to publicity. I just want something honest.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought about that, Paige, but you make a good point. I wouldn't doubt there was some kind of Kickback to Oprah and her studio for selecting the specific books for her book club.
DeleteI find it amazing that Oprah is so invested in reading and her lists of recommendations with Oprah’s Book Club. The time and energy that she puts into recommending their books helps their sales so that these authors receive the publicity and book sales they may not have received otherwise. My only qualms with her book club are with authors that have not had the pleasure of receiving her attention and only fall through the cracks with the publicity and book sales their compelling novels they did not receive. I understand it is the responsibility of the publishing house that their published receive a fair amount of attention, but novels reviewed by celebrities receive more attention. This is something that I will continue to be aware of because I want to make sure that patrons have access to all titles, those that have fallen through the cracks and those reviewed by celebrities.
ReplyDeleteThat's the importance of having strong RA skills-- to introduce partons to titles they might not have even been aware of previously but will enjoy nonetheless.
DeleteExcellent prompt response! Full points.
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