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Three weeks ago, Winfrey chose "Gap Creek" as her book club selection for January, a move that had a predictably electric effect on sales. The pre-Oprah printing was 10,000. The post-Oprah printing was 525,000 -- and the publisher, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, N.C., may be going back for a reprint.

"The reviewers love him, other writers love him and his small following loves him," Algonquin's publisher, Elizabeth Scharlatt, says of Morgan, an award-winning novelist who teaches at Cornell. "Now he's being discovered by a much larger audience, and for a writer that's better than winning the lottery."

As effervescent as Oprah's nod may have made Morgan, though, it saddled Algonquin with a heavy burden. The publisher got the news Jan. 10 but had to promise to keep the choice a secret for the next eight days, calling the book only Oprah Book No. 30 until Jan. 18. And while Algonquin had to notify its customers about the mystery book, its salespeople could tell their accounts only that they had Oprah Book No. 30. Although retailers had no idea what they were ordering, the results were astounding. "Over a period of days, we had half a million orders," Scharlatt reports.

That was great -- except that Algonquin also had to deliver the product, and the extraordinarily high numbers left the publisher scrambling, since it's more accustomed to putting out literary novels with small print runs (like Stacy D'Erasmo's recent "Tea"). "Our eyes were wide for days," Scharlatt recalls. "We had two different printers and binderies working three-shift days for a period of six days."

And Algonquin had to get Winfrey's people to sign off on several crucial decisions. According to Scharlatt, "Oprah had to approve the stencil on the box: 'Oprah Book No. 30. Do Not Open Before Jan. 18.'" The book club also oversees the Oprah logo that goes on the cover: a big yellow "O" with a white center. In the case of "Gap Creek," the original book jacket had a moon in the upper right-hand corner that would compete with the logo; in the end, Scharlatt said, "We had to give up the moon." Lunar concessions notwithstanding, Algonquin is reaping earthly delights, including a six-figure deal with Simon & Schuster to publish the book's paperback edition.

Since its debut in September 1996, Oprah's Book Club has been responsible for a remarkable string of bestsellers. Now it's time to chalk up another one.
salon.com | Feb. 9, 2000

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