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Polls never lie, they just exaggerate a little


A recent Zogby/Random House survey showed that Jon Stewart had more influence than Oprah, when it came to driving book sales. Hard to believe? Well, let's see for ourselves in this highly scientific poll created by NASA engineers.

Posted on Tuesday, June 3, 2008 by Registered CommenterJamie | Comments7 Comments

Reader Comments (7)

Hey Jamie...All I know is I, yes, me, that's right, I, try to influence as many people as possible to buy books of every shape and form! I'm constantly pushing books on people--either making them buy their own or buying it for them and I know that someday I'll be the all powerful decider of which books to read or not!!! When did the verb decider come into being??? I can't believe I just used it because I'm not so sure it was a "real" word seven years ago...
June 4, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterkathie
Sigh. That Jon Stewart is so dreamy. But if Oprah asks, tell her I voted for her, k? Thanks.
June 4, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterJaye Wells
In a former life I used to design books for a local publisher. We had a book buyer from Barnes and Noble come out once to talk about how she chose the titles for B&N. Our editor asked her all these strange questions about which color sold best, and whether the title of the book should be on the top third of the cover, etc. At the end of all this, she sort of stared blankly at him and told him she bought virtually every book sight unseen.So I'm not sure if there's anything visually that helps sell a book, although Oprah's face on her magazine seems to do the trick.
June 4, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterEric
Wow. I guess no one's a vegetarian.
June 4, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterjamie
I agree with Kathie that more often I am pushing books on my friends and family or they are pushing books onto me. Even my 14 year old niece convinced me that I had to read 'Twilight'. But Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have been known to sway me into something I wouldn't have picked up on my own. Not to mention the wonderful little magazine called 'Entertainment Weekly'. That was how I discovered Lisa See and her wonderful book 'Snow Flower and the Secret Fan'.
June 4, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterMaryke
My co-worker's brother was slated to appear on both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report when the writer's strike struck. Bad timing, otherwise his paperback release might have had more impact.

My daughter says she is drawn to books with light blue covers. I don't know if that's a proven sales point, but it might be something to consider. What colours attract readers?
June 12, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterSandra Cormier
EW is a great mag. Totally self-indulgent and I love it. It's my guilty pleasure, even though I don't watch much TV.
June 14, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterjamie

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