John Darkin: Talk-show queen sparks a new chapter in publishing

COMMENT

Bookshops everywhere are giving prime display space to a 51-year-old novel. This would not be unusual if the book had just been made into a movie, and a tie-in version, complete with a still picture from the film on the jacket, had been issued to maximise sales potential.

But in this instance there is no new movie; only a film made in 1955 starring the Hollywood sensation of the time, James Dean. The novel now enjoying a surprising revival is John Steinbeck's minor classic, East of Eden. Originally published in 1952, it followed a succession of highly praised books by its author. In 1962 Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, although East of Eden wasn't among the list of his most noteworthy novels.

So why has it suddenly become a bestseller? The clue is American day-time television. In particular, it was a whim of talk-show queen Oprah Winfrey who last month honoured Steinbeck's tale with the announcement that East of Eden had been admitted to her newly revived Oprah's Book Club.

The club advises 22 million viewers in the United States, plus millions more worldwide, which books they should be reading.

Why she chose this book ahead of others is a mystery. But, amazingly, during the month after the book's anointment it sold nearly a million copies in the US alone, and the demand is now worldwide.

Oprah's viewers are demonstrating total devotion by taking up her advice in huge numbers - "I loved this book," she says, "you will, too."

Publishers are ecstatic. Oprah may be queen of the chat shows but for the book business she is the queen of promotion. She is not known to be rewarded by publishers for her endorsement; she doesn't need to be. Oprah is the only black woman to appear in Forbes magazine's list of global billionaires.

For publishers, there is no better way of producing and selling books than by taking an existing print, fitting a new wrapper, and printing the "Oprah's Book Club" logo boldly on the front cover.

Huge sales are guaranteed. Produce as many copies as demanded and, hey profit, it's preferable to the expense and risk of publishing a new author.

Oprah closed her book club in April last year, saying she no longer had time to read. Industry insiders claimed that, in reality, she was finding modern novels unfulfilling and too much of an effort to endorse. In the six years before the closure, she had recommended newly published books. Every one of them was a commercial success. Not once did the programme endorse an old book.

This year, with the return of the book club, Oprah is focusing on classic writing, choosing five or six books a year. If East of Eden is anything to go by, this will inject huge interest. There is an almost limitless resource at her disposal. Bets could be taken on which direction her whim will travel. However, whatever she chooses from the enormous pool of wonderful classic literature, quality is guaranteed.

Publishers, meanwhile, wait in eager anticipation for Oprah's next literary broadside. The printer's reaction will have to be swift and decisive if a million new copies are to be printed and circulated before the heat cools off and the public forget if it was Thackeray or Thoreau the diva of talk had mentioned.

Classic literature, like classical music, survives among only a minority. What was once regarded as the people's heritage has become, through lack of interest, just some people's heritage.

Today's taste is simpler, standards are less demanding. So we are grateful to those publishers who take their responsibility towards great writing seriously by keeping it in print. Without their support, important writers would soon be lost. If, from time to time, talk-show presenters give that body of work a boost, we must be thankful.

Purely as a study of what makes someone buy a particular book, the Oprah experience, especially in the US, tells us that the public really likes to be told which book to buy, and Oprah is trusted in this respect. Her show invites viewers to appreciate that reading is a sensible, educational, and entertaining occupation.

Decent families own books, and the well-informed ones actually read them. The problem, however, is to know which books to own. As a million Oprah devotees have discovered, the solution is simple. Do as Winfrey suggests and buy the books she recommends; the problem of choice is removed. It's as easy as phoning for a takeaway.

As for East of Eden, its sudden, unexpected boost in sales will no doubt substantially benefit the inheritors of Steinbeck's estate. Bookshops, if they are alert to the Oprah factor, will gain extra sales, while the publisher will think it's his birthday.

However, talented unpublished writers could not be blamed for hoping that publishers' windfall profits from the reissue of old classics might be invested in the work of new authors, so that Oprah's grandchildren, when they inherit her show, will be able to recommend classic novels published in 2003.

*John Darkin is a Gisborne bookseller.