They may not have the reach of Oprah Winfrey’s book club, but each week the live author interviews on National Public Radio introduce new books to millions of listeners across the country, giving many of them a bump in sales.
The producers of several of NPR’s most high-profile shows were on hand Friday for a panel discussion at BookExpo America at the Washington Convention Center, where they gave a rare glimpse into what it takes to get a book noticed out of the thousands the nonprofit radio network receives each year.
“I can think of no other radio outlet that has greater universal appeal on the literary world than National Public Radio,” said Elizabeth Shreve, the moderator of Friday’s panel and a D.C.-based publicist who represents many authors heard on NPR.
On “Morning Edition” alone, 13 million listeners tune in each week, said Bruce Auster, the program’s senior supervising editor, and those listeners are in the market for books.
As a result, said Amy Salit, a booker for “Fresh Air,” the offices are “drowning in books.”
The staff intentionally picks a wide variety of books for the shows based what their gut instincts tell them the audience will find interesting and judgments of how the authors will do during an on-air interview.
The one thing listeners won’t find on NPR is fiction. The network rarely interviews anyone but nonfiction authors, said Susan Feeney, senior editor of “All Things Considered,” because it’s hard for the audience to relate to a fiction book they haven’t read.
Yet the network and its audience remain the Holy Grail for both nonfiction and fiction authors looking for a serious seal of approval.
“[NPR listeners] buy books,” Auster said.
“And that’s sort of a remarkable thing in this day and age.”
Giving by the book
» Each year, NPR receives thousands of books from authors hoping to be interviewed on the network. A very small percentage of those books actually make iton the air. The network quietly gives the rest to charities across the country in need of books
