Oprah's Book Selections HURT Sales?

Indeed.

From a piece on MSNBC...

In its 15-year run, Oprah's Book Club presented an idiosyncratic array of old and new books, written by a combination of unknowns and established literary names, many of which shot to bestseller status after Oprah's endorsement. "It's a tremendous brand. It's like printing money," said Peter Wahlstrom, senior analyst at Morningstar.

But from an industry perspective, Oprah's attention backfired. In a new research paper, Northwestern University professor of management Craig Garthwaite labels Oprah's endorsements "business stealing."

While sales of titles selected by Oprah spiked an average of 400 percent in the first week alone, and other books by those authors also enjoyed what Garthwaite termed an "economically significant" boost, readers' newfound interest in those authors came at the expense of other writers, titles and entire genres, he said. In the 12 weeks following each of Oprah's Book Club endorsements, sales in the adult fiction category decreased by an average of 2.5 percent, with romance, mystery and action categories showing the largest drop-off.