First numbers on Oprah's Book Club 2.0 are out

Publishers Lunch Deluxe reports on the first Nielsen Bookscan print book sales report following the announcement that Cheryl Strayed's Wild would be the initial selection in the new Oprah's Book Club 2.0. For the week ending June 10th, the title sold approximately 11,300 copies, up about 7,700 copies from the previous week (with weekly sales for the four weeks before the announcement ranging from 3,100 to 4,400 copies.) That made it #31 on the Bookscan bestseller list and #8 on the adult non-fiction list. In addition, a Knopf spokesperson said that "digital sales are extraordinary," with eBook sales almost three times the number of print sales reported by Bookscan. Knopf printed an additional 100,000 copies since the Oprah announcement, for a total of 225,000 copies in print.

While Oprah's announcement has undoubtedly increased sales for Wild, it's far too early to tell if the effect will last, and for how long. In addition, given that most of the exposure to the new Book Club is on the Internet, the greatest impact for this and future selections may be on eBook sales, not print.