Cheryl Strayed’ s Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, received a solid boost in print sales after it was announced over the first weekend in June that the title had been picked as the first selection in Oprah Winfrey’s new Oprah’s Book Club 2.0. In the week ended June 10, Wild sold over 11,000 copies, a 220% jump in sales over the prior week at outlets tracked by Nielsen BookScan. But according to Knopf’s Paul Bogaards that tells less than half the story—e-book sales of Wild were triple the total print number (Nielsen tracks about 75% of print sales) in the first week.
The editions of Wild with the Oprah seal on the cover shipped earlier this week, and Bogaards said while e-book sales remain strong, Knopf is seeing steady gains in print accounts as well. He noted that the Oprah publicity machine is just beginning to kick in with the O magazine that features the pick only reaching readers last week. Word is also just starting to spread through social media networks, Bogaards added. While Winfrey’s television presence isn’t as strong as it once was, she “remains a powerful advocate for books. People trust her recommendations, “ Bogaards said.
After 12 trips to press, Wild has 225,000 copies in print, including 100,000 that bear the Oprah seal.
