Oprah Makes Mincemeat Out of One Author, Chart-Topper Out of Another

What a day for Oprah Winfrey. Not only did she take her second-to-last Book Club pick author, James Frey, to task for his highly publicized fabrications and embellishments in A Million Little Pieces, thus reversing her earlier fervent support of him and his book; she also owned the Bestsellers Chart in an unprecedented way. Oprah Book Club editions occupied three of The Book Standard's Top Five Overall slots, and all three of the top three Nonfiction chart-toppers. In the case of Wiesel's Night, which debuted at the top of the Overall Chart, its paperback edition sold more than 127,000 units last week, while its hardcover version, sold 32,000. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux's Jeff Seroy, senior vice president, marketing and publicity, says FSG printed 1 million copies in paperback and 150,000 copies in hardcover in advance of the Oprah endorsement that was announced Jan. 16; two days later, the company went back to press for an additional 100,000 paperback copies and 20,000 hardcover.) Frey's A Million Little Pieces continued to do bang-up business, with the Oprah edition?which until this morning Winfrey was ostensibly fully supporting?selling 80,000 copies last week.