Is Stephen King the new Oprah?
This morning a fellow editor left a copy of Stephen King’s April 6 Entertainment Weekly column in my chair. HIs latest The Pop of King editorial, “How to Bury a Book” raved about Mischa Berlinksi’s debut novel, Fieldwork and chastised publisher Farrar Straus & Giroux for failing to better market the book. “Under the drab title and the drab cover, there’s a story that cooks like a mother,” he writes.
 
 A few months ago in an another EW column, “The Secret Gardiner”, King sang the praises of Meg Gardiner, an American thriller writer living and published in Britain. Lo and behold, shortly after the column appeared, Dutton acquired the U.S. rights to publish her five novels plus two new ones.
Not surprisingly there will probably be increased demand for Fieldwork. A quick check of the New York Public Library’s Leo catalog shows 18 holds for the system’s 11 copies. I would be curious to hear from other libraries about patron response to King’s editorial. Still, I feel a little resentment at how the opinion of one person can sway millions of reading decisions, especially since a few months ago a librarian blogger complained that books that received positive LJ reviews didn’t circulate in his library (Best Books=Best Circulating?).
[…] Paige Maguire wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThis morning a fellow editor left a copy of Stephen King’s April 6 Entertainment Weekly column in my chair. HIs latest The Pop of King editorial, “How to Bury a Bookâ€? raved about Mischa Berlinksi’s debut novel, Fieldwork and chastised … […]
Pingback by york times » Blog Archive » Is Stephen King the new Oprah? — April 3, 2007 @ 4:22 pm
Oprah uses television to bring readers into the bookstore. This state of affairs must be applied by members of the literary community who above all care about books.
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Comment by Brian Hadd — April 3, 2007 @ 6:02 pm
Just like Oprah, Stephen King’s fans respect his opinions (”If Stephen likes it, then I might too”). I don’t think it really matters why people read the books that they do, and any publicity for authors is good business. I’m just glad people are talking about books.
Comment by Carlie — April 4, 2007 @ 1:15 am
Thanks for the great feedback. I do wish librarians would play a more active role in promoting the books they do acquire for their collections. Perhaps they could take a page from bookstores and do a little more personal handselling of their favorites (not necessarily the best sellers.) I always find the little handwritten “staff picks” in my favorite bookstores influential in my purchasing decisions.
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