Celebrity book clubs, a multi-million dollar business

Seventeen years have passed since 2666 was published in the United States. It was on Tuesday, November 18, 2008, when Roberto Bolaño 's novel arrived in all American bookstores, translated by Natasha Wimmer. It did so backed by the praise of the New York Times , which immediately praised the writer's posthumous novel, as well as by the enthusiasm of the famous presenter Oprah Winfrey , who from the first moment expressed her admiration for the Chilean writer's work, appearing in public with a copy of the book , which she would also recommend to her book club.

Winfrey played a key role in Bolaño's promotion. However, it wasn't the first time that the woman who for decades garnered spectacular ratings with her show had become instrumental in the success and acclaim of a book .

Just a year earlier, Winfrey included Cormac McCarthy's The Road in her book club , a novel published in 2006 that, according to Nielsen data, went from selling less than 200,000 copies to exceeding one million after appearing in the presenter's club.

More examples could be given, since we're talking about a book club that has a history of more than two decades, during which it has been, and continues to be, instrumental in elevating titles and making them not only bestsellers but also the most critically acclaimed.

Winfrey was a pioneer in putting books at the center of her multi-million-dollar businesses through a format as simple and, if you will, classic as the book club.

However, she has turned it around to the point that she is an essential reference for the publishing industry ; there is no editor or agent in the United States—and beyond—who doesn't listen to her recommendations and do everything possible to ensure that their authors and titles reach the hands of the presenter's team and are the lucky ones chosen.

Winfrey was indeed a pioneer, paving the way for other women in the world of art and entertainment who have turned their readership into a more or less philanthropic business, becoming key players in the Anglo-Saxon publishing industry.

Founded in 2017, Reese Witherspoon 's Book Club It's a multi-million dollar business. Its free nature, its willingness to focus on works written by women or underrepresented groups, as can be read on its website, and its desire to discover new authors who haven't yet had the chance to see their texts published should not be misleading.

Her supposed philanthropy remains almost exclusively rhetorical, because in practice her book club, which has around two and a half million subscribers , is inseparable from The White Rabbit, Whitespoon's production company through which she retains the audiovisual rights to the titles she promotes and endorses. This was the case with Big Little Lies , a work that the actress produced and turned into a successful series.

Undoubtedly, the club was born out of her passion for reading , and there's no doubt that in the selection of titles there's a clear commitment to who should and deserves to be given a speaker. However, to think of it in purely philanthropic terms is naive : like Winfrey, Whitherspoon has placed more than one of her recommended titles, especially romance and suspense novels, among the bestsellers on the New York Times list.

Placing them there, however, is still a way to guarantee the subsequent success of the audiovisual adaptations she produces . “Whitherspoon is very clever,” comments Marina Penalba of the Casanovas & Lynch agency, “this way she secures the first look at the manuscripts she's going to give visibility to and also guarantees exclusive rights to the audiovisual rights. In a few months, she'll publish a crime novel co-authored with Harlan Coben , and what will she do? She'll recommend it to her book club and, later, she'll be in charge of producing its adaptation.” A profitable business.

Whitherspoon isn't the only one to follow in Winfrey's footsteps. Press departments' mailing lists for publishers include Jenna Bush Hager, Dakota Johnson, Emma Roberts, Kaia Gerber, and Dua Lipa , among others.

The daughter of former President George W. Bush, co-host of NBC's Today show, has a book club that has landed more than 40 titles on The New York Times bestseller list .

Furthermore, its influence is such that, just two years ago, it opened its own imprint within the Penguin Random House group , within which it has just presented its first title, Conform , a dystopian novel with romantic elements, the debut work of Ariel Sullivan.

Dakota Johnson , daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith, and Emma Roberts , niece of Julia Roberts, each have a book club associated with their production companies, Tee Time and Belletrist, respectively.

Following the Witherspoon model, Roberts has adapted two of her recent recommendations to audiovisual format : First Kill and Tell Me Lies .

For her part, and unlike the others, model Kaia Gerber also has her own club, but it's not associated with any production company. Her activity is focused almost exclusively on her Instagram profile , where she has ten million followers and is often seen posing with books or posting interviews and other material related to books and authors.

One of her latest publications was an interview with critic Merve Emre about Djuna Barnes, an author who thus joins a list of recommendations that mixes current writing—see Sally Rooney or Chloe Benjamin—with contemporary classics such as Harper Lee, James Baldwin, and the aforementioned Barnes.

" Is this done out of a simple interest in reading or because it provides something? In other words, does recommending books provide symbolic capital or added value to public figures?" Penalba asks.

What's certain is that these recommendations add value to the book . The question alludes to a reality that goes beyond those book clubs led by well-known people: it points to the impact of those high-profile figures—from Patti Smith to Rosalía, including Julieta Venegas—who share their readings on social media.

In this case, the economic return is zero, but what about the symbolic return? The question, in any case, is twofold: who has a greater symbolic return, the person recommending or the recommended book?

“The fact that Julieta Venegas recommended Camila Fabbri 's El día que apagan las luces on Instagram had a certain impact on sales,” explains agent María Lynch, who believes the relationship between certain recommendations and increased sales is undeniable.

Venegas not only recommended Fabbri's latest novel, but also María Gainza 's El nervio óptica (The Optic Nerve ) and the poetry of Elvira Sastre . "The importance of these recommendations is evident in the fact that every time Rosalía appears on Instagram with a book, we go crazy trying to find out what it is," says agent Maria Cardona, who admits to closely following the book clubs of Winfrey, Whitherspoon, Bush, and Dua Lipa, and asks English-speaking publishers to send her the books of her clients.

"I represent authors in all markets, so when one of them publishes in the US or the UK, I make sure that publishers send their book to these clubs, because the impact of participating in them is significant in terms of sales or popularity."

Cardona knows this well, as its author , Alana S. Portero, participated in Dua Lipa 's book club with the American edition of The Bad Habit.

“Dua Lipa's team is very professional. We worked on the interview for several weeks beforehand: materials were prepared, a promotional video was made, and the interview was fantastic,” the agent explains.

And he points out that, evidently, "Portero joining Dua Lipa's club had its impact, but it was specifically on sales of the English edition. It was discussed here, some articles appeared, but it wasn't noticeable in sales."

Lipa also sponsored, not financially but through promotion - via her social media and newsletter - Portero's presence at the Hay Festival in Wales , as well as her presentation at the Strand bookstore in New York: "The importance of a sponsorship like this is enormous - continues Cardona - because entering a new market is complicated and even more so in the United States, so arriving sponsored by someone like Dua Lipa is a great endorsement."

Lipa's role, whose territory of influence is rather British, is somewhat reminiscent of the one Winfrey played with Bolaño and reminds us of Patti Smith , whose enthusiastic recommendation of Mariana Enríquez's narrative had a significant impact on sales.

“And it wasn't just Patti Smith; Sarah Jessica Parker also recommended Mariana . Something like this obviously helps a lot in terms of sales and promotion,” says María Lynch, highlighting the large number of book clubs, meetups, and virtual events in which Enríquez has participated. “A very generous woman, very approachable with readers, with great charisma, and who also makes sure that no event or presentation is the same .”

The complete poetry of Rimbaud and Hart Crane, the novel Exiled from Amsterdam by the Italian-American Piero Heliczer (author not published in Spain), The Event by Annie Ernaux or Mercury , the novel by Anna Kavan, are some of the latest readings we find on the Instagram of Patti Smith , whose internationally recognized figure makes a few of her words on the flap or sleeve of a book work as a hook for readers.

Although Smith's case is exceptional, as Maria Cardona points out, "Winfrey's or Witherspoon's recommendations have an impact in the United States, but not here. We lack figures like this who have their own book clubs here."

It's true that publishers are increasingly receiving manuscripts from the English-speaking market, and agents' reports indicate whether they have been recommended by a celebrity or have appeared on someone's social media.

But these data, while not completely overlooked, are not decisive , because, in reality, the average reader in Spain has no interest in Jenna Bush, Whinterspoon or Winfrey's book clubs.

In the Spanish market, a post by Rosalía has more influence . However, it doesn't have the influence of those Anglo-Saxon book clubs that, beyond a love of books and a certain philanthropic nature, are businesses that generate money and jobs and have become indispensable players in the book market.