Oprah_ A Biography - Kitty Kelley [156]
7. The Heart of a Woman, by Maya Angelou
8. Songs in Ordinary Time, by Mary McGarry Morris
9. A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest J. Gaines
10. Ellen Foster, by Kaye Gibbons
11. A Virtuous Woman, by Kaye Gibbons
12. The Meanest Thing to Say, by Bill Cosby
13. The Treasure Hunt, by Bill Cosby
14. The Best Way to Play, by Bill Cosby
15. Paradise, by Toni Morrison
16. Here on Earth, by Alice Hoffman
17. Black and Blue, by Anna Quindlen
18. Breath, Eyes, Memory, by Edwidge Danticat
19. I Know This Much Is True, by Wally Lamb
20. What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, by Pearl Cleage
21. Midwives, by Chris Bohjalian
22. Where the Heart Is, by Billie Letts
23. Jewel, by Bret Lott
24. The Reader, by Bernhard Schlink
25. The Pilot’s Wife, by Anita Shreve
26. White Oleander, by Janet Fitch
27. Mother of Pearl, by Melinda Haynes
28. Tara Road, by Maeve Binchy
29. River, Cross My Heart, by Breena Clarke
30. Vinegar Hill, by A. Manette Ansay
31. A Map of the World, by Jane Hamilton
32. Gap Creek, by Robert Morgan
33. Daughter of Fortune, by Isabel Allende
34. Back Roads, by Tawni O’Dell
35. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
36. While I Was Gone, by Sue Miller
37. The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver
38. Open House, by Elizabeth Berg
39. Drowning Ruth, by Christina Schwarz
40. House of Sand and Fog, by Andre Dubus III
41. We Were the Mulvaneys, by Joyce Carol Oates
42. Icy Sparks, by Gwyn Hyman Rubio
43. Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail, by Malika Oufkir
44. Cane River, by Lalita Tademy
45. The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen
46. A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry
47. Fall on Your Knees, by Ann-Marie MacDonald
48. Sula, by Toni Morrison
Within the first year, Oprah’s Book Club had sold almost twelve million copies of contemporary fiction, a genre that typically sold no more than a few thousand copies per title per year, and according to Publishing Trends, an industry newsletter, she was responsible for $130 million in book sales. Consequently, she became known as “The Midas of the Midlist” for her ability to turn modestly successful novels into raging bestsellers. “This is a revolution,” said Toni Morrison, the first black writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Oprah introduced Morrison to her audience in 1996 as “the greatest living American writer, male or female, white or black.” Over the next six years she selected Morrison for the book club four times, even hosting a master class so the erudite writer could instruct Oprah’s audience on how to read a novel. Oprah began that show by reassuring viewers that she, too, had difficulty reading Toni Morrison, and revealed her conversation with the writer.
“Do people tell you they have to keep going over the words sometimes?” Oprah said.
“That, my dear,” said Toni Morrison, “is called reading.”
By the end of the first year of Oprah’s Book Club, publishers were reeling. “It’s like waking up in the morning and finding your husband has changed into Kevin Costner,” said one female publisher. They turned themselves inside out to accommodate Oprah, signing confidentiality agreements to keep secret her selection until she announced it on her show. They agreed to contribute five hundred free copies of the book for her to distribute to her audience, and to donate ten thousand copies to libraries. They dispatched sales reps to sell blindly: “There will be an Oprah Book Club selection in two months. I don’t know what it is. How many copies do you want to order?” In turn, booksellers had to sign confidentiality agreements not to open the boxes shipped with the Oprah stencil until the minute she announced her selection on the air. The anointed authors also signed affidavits swearing not to reveal their good fortune until Oprah had announced their books. They were permitted to tell their spouses but no one else, including parents, siblings, and children. In addition, publishers had to cede Oprah cover approval of the placement of the book club logo (a big yellow O with a white center) and agree to stop