When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg decided to launch a book club, book publishers were hoping the billions of Facebook users would translate into book sales. But the numbers are in, and Zuckerberg is no Oprah: BetaBoston reports that though The End of Power sold out on Amazon, it only sold 13,000 copies. By contrast, Oprah averaged more than three quarters of million books per book club title.
The second book on Zuckerberg’s list, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, remained available, perhaps because it was 830 pages long. Zuckerberg’s third book, Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets, just 320 pages, is also currently available.
In 2012, Oprah launched an online Book Club 2.0 and though the club has only chosen three books so far, her first choice was Cheryl Strayed‘s Wild. That book sold more than a million copies.
