quarta-feira, 6 de junho de 2012

On the Dust Jacket, to O or Not to O By MONICA CORCORAN


On the Dust Jacket, to O or Not to O
By MONICA CORCORAN

''THE CORRECTIONS,'' the highly praised novel by Jonathan Franzen that is No. 1 on many best-seller lists, has an image problem with some readers. The problem is small, about the size of a silver dollar, but glaring: in the middle of the book's cover is a yellow ''O'' enclosing the words ''Oprah's Book Club,'' a seal of approval for bibliophobic times.
Oprah Winfrey endorsed ''The Corrections'' late last month, the most recent of the 45 titles she has chosen for her televised book club, which publishers and authors welcome as the most potent marketing send-off in the business.
But to some bookworms, it is a scarlet O. ''A young woman came in here yesterday and made me search for a copy of 'The Corrections' without the Oprah logo,'' said Keith McEvoy, manager of the Shakespeare & Company bookstore in the West Village. ''I couldn't find one, and she left in a huff to buy it somewhere else.''
Denise Bonis, manager of Book Soup on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, told a similar tale. ''The people coming in for 'The Corrections' look kind of crushed when they see it's an Oprah book,'' she said. ''We will special-order it for them without the stamp if we can.''
Both managers said many readers react similarly to novels rereleased after a film adaptation. ''Most people want the original copy of 'The English Patient,' not the one with Ralph Fiennes's face on the cover,'' Mr. McEvoy said.
What seems to irk some readers about the Oprah endorsement is the implication that they are plowing through the same book as the vast daytime viewership for Ms. Winfrey's show.
''It makes me feel mainstream to be reading an Oprah book,'' conceded Maria Grasso, a television executive with the WB network in Burbank, Calif. ''I don't want people to think that I have no idea about literature or that I sit home and watch TV all day.''
Last summer, Ms. Grasso went so far as to rip an Oprah's Book Club logo from the upper right hand corner of ''House of Sand and Fog'' by Andre Dubus III, a paperback she borrowed from a friend.
Defacement like that won't work with ''The Corrections.'' The Oprah seal is centered on the dust jacket, like a bull's-eye. According to the book's publisher, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, the design was an aesthetic accommodation of the logo made by both the art director and the author.
''I would have been happier if it could have been a sticker, but only because I am uneasy with advertising on the front of a hardcover,'' Mr. Franzen said. ''I don't understand the label snobbery.''
In fact, Ms. Winfrey has largely endorsed the type of novels critics praise, not commercial fiction. From Wally Lamb to Sue Miller to Isabel Allende, she has won huge new readerships for midlist or obscure authors. Ashbel Green, a vice president and senior editor at Knopf, who edited Ernest J. Gaines's ''Lesson Before Dying,'' a 1997 Oprah pick, said: ''I don't think she has picked a bad book yet. Every one of her selections is worthwhile and enjoyable.'' Mr. Green compared her choices to reader-friendly books of the 19th century by writers like Dickens and Thackeray.
Farrar, Straus published 90,000 copies of ''The Corrections'' before Ms. Winfrey's nod. Afterward, it rushed back to print 680,000 more; 500,000 of those were directly attributable to Ms. Winfrey's endorsement, said Laurie Brown, vice president for marketing at Farrar, Straus.
Jeff Seroy, the publicity director at the house, said dust jackets without the Oprah logo would probably be printed ''as long as there is a demand for that edition.''
Recently the book was named a National Book Award finalist. ''So that's another logo to consider,'' Ms. Brown said.

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