Oprah Winfrey and Richard and Judy beware, there is a new television chat show figure who dominates the best-seller book list – Glenn Beck, the conspiracy-minded right-wing Fox News host.
Mr Beck’s power to propel thrillers to the top of the bestseller lists by recommending them to his devoted audience has been noted before but he has now managed to put Friedrich Hayek up there too.
Mediaite noted this week that the Amazon bestseller list on Thursday had Mr Beck’s own political thriller The Overton Window at number one, and Hayek’s classic 1944 anti-socialist text The Road to Serfdom in second place.
Mr Beck is known for his involved, often funny, diatribes against government and liberals on his Fox News show and he recommended The Road to Serfdom there last week.
As Glynnis MacNicol of Mediate points out, a book being recommended on television is a highly effective way for publishers to sell more copies. It is also free, compared with paying incentive fees to retailers led by Barnes & Noble and Amazon to feature a book at the front of store (or website home page).
Mr Beck has become publishers’ new best friend.
