Jonathan Ross's Twitter Book club sends sales soaring

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 22 May 2009 at 14:57

Jonathan Ross's decision to start an impromptu book club on Twitter, has improved sales of his first nominated book by 7,000%.

Speaking on his Twitter feed on Friday evening, Ross wrote, "I have a great idea! Let's start a book club on Twitter! One a week and we all post mini-reviews!"

"So if you want to join informal book club read Jon Ronson Men Who Stare at Goats by next weekend & we will chat about it."

Th idea seemed to strike a chord with his 270,000 followers who immediately sent the book - which charts the US Army's bizarre attempts to create psychic soldiers - tearing up the bestseller list. Reports suggest Amazon sales jumped 7,000% in 24 hours. Amazon refused to confirm the figures, however.

The boost certainly pleased Ronson, who then tweeted: "Every writer feels like a deluded lunatic, sitting alone, imagining they're a writer. So things like wossybook club are a great tonic."

The early success of the book club has prompted commentators to suggest that #wossybookclub could step into the void left by Richard and Judy's book club - which reportedly shifted £180 million worth of books in the six years it was running.