The most interesting part of the Oprah bookclub to me at least was Stripha’s description of the author who was peeved to have his book included on the list. He felt that having his books re-printed with an O insignia took away from his ownership of the book and in a way reputed the sale to Oprah’s stardom. Additionally, for his cameo on the show he felt that his very much staged interview was creating a whole fictional story about his writing process which was to be shortened to 3 minutes. Striphas did a great job showing both side to the bookclub. I think that overall both writers and participants were happy with increased sales and sense of community, but there are of course going to be people on both end of the spectrum and Oprah can only hope for the happy medium.
That’s a fairly interesting point. If a book gets recommended by a celebrity, the book no longer gets fame for its own content, but because “Oprah said it was good.” And if the book gets enjoyed by millions, the author doesn’t get praised for writing a good book, Oprah gets praised for recommending a good book.