Does Oprah still have her book mojo?

It was so spectacular a phenomenon it was dubbed “the Oprah Effect,” or “the Oprah Touch,” the book Queen’s singular ability to pluck little-known authors like Anita Shreve or Jacquelyn Mitchard from a pile, make them into household names in a few short weeks with her priceless Oprah seal of sanction, along the way instantly skyrocketing sales to more than one million copies, rarefied territory for any title.

“When Ms. Winfrey halted her daytime talk show last year, book publicists mourned the loss of what was easily the most desirable platform to promote an author,” the New York Times wrote in its Media Decoder blog.

Can she do it again?

Sure, she’s got a 24-hour cable network with her name on it, a weekly show, and a still-popular magazine and website. But the show, “Oprah’s Next Chapter,” draws an audience that ranges between a few hundred thousand to about 1 million, depending on the guest, paltry compared to her 12-million-strong audience at the peak of her network television career. And after two years away from Winfrey’s popular book club, will readers be ready to bounce back on demand?

If they’re anything like Winfrey, they just might.

"My first thought watching the video is that this is a woman who really misses talking about books with an audience of readers," Carol Fitzgerald, founder of BookReporter.com, told USA Today. "As for impact … it will be interesting to see. The syndicated show had a pre-engaged group of readers who were tuned in for a specific experience with Oprah each day. While the interaction proposed here is multidimensional, it's also a lot more fragmented."

And with “Wild,” Winfrey may have chosen a book that resonates with many viewers. In it, Strayed sets off for a treacherous, months-long solo 1,100-mile hike from the Mojave Desert up to Oregon to confront a life that appears to be falling apart – her mother had died of cancer and her marriage to a good man had dissolved. It is, writes the Times, “the kind of story of resilience and self-invention that Ms. Winfrey has championed,” and we might add, that her fans adore.

As for the re-invention of her book club, signs suggest Winfrey may yet be successful: “Wild” went from No. 173 on Amazon.com’s bestseller list Friday evening to No. 12 Monday morning.

As Paul Bogaards, a spokesman for Knopf, the publisher of “Wild,” told the New York Times, “When it comes to a book, there is no better recommendation engine than a nod from Oprah.”

Some things, it seems, never change.

Watch Oprah’s video announcement here.

Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.

Previous

1 | 2