Thursday, January 29, 2015

As Seen on Dr. Oz: The Doctor Oz Effect on Book Sales

Yesterday, the book Chicken Soup for the Soul: Touched by an Angel, was featured on the Dr. Oz show. The title of the segment was "Proof of Angels: Can They Heal Us?"

Dr. Oz interviewed Gabrielle Bernstein, who wrote the foreword to the Touched by an Angel anthology, and he posed the question: How do angels help us heal? 

As a believer in angels and a contributor to the anthology, I was curious to hear both Gabrielle's explanation and Dr. Oz's thoughts on the matter. 

Dr. Oz spoke about neurotheology, which was a new term to me, so I looked it up in the dictionary. 

Neurotheology (also called neuroscience) is defined as "the scientific study of the neural correlates of religious or spiritual beliefs and practices." 

To demonstrate, Dr. Oz showed side-by-side graphics of a brain, which showed how much more active the frontal lobe is during prayer or meditation. Fascinating!

The segment also included interviews with three women who were contributors to the anthology. They shared their personal stories of their encounters with angels. Inspiring!

From my point of view, the feature combined the best of both worlds --  scientific method and anecdotal evidence as proof of beliefs.

Before watching the program, I was curious to learn about how being mentioned on the Dr. Oz show would affect book sales. I had a gut feeling that having a book on his show would increase sales, but I wanted proof. So, I did a mini-analysis of my own. 

Hours before the show aired, I collected data from two major book sites then compared it to data collected within 24 hours after the show aired.

Here’s what I found.

Hours before the show was aired on Wed, Jan 28, here are the book's rankings:

On Amazon
Kindle: # 102,888 in the paid Kindle store
#55 in Angels
#63 in Spiritualism
#74 in Faith

Paperbacks: #81,392 in sales
#66 on Angels
#13 on Faith

On Barnes & Nobel the book ranked #94,235 in books. I didn’t check Nook.

Within 24-hours -- the day after the show aired, Thurs, Jan 29:

On Amazon
Kindle: #2,683 in the paid Kindle store
#1 in Angels
#1 in Spiritualism
#1 in Faith

Paperbacks: #736 in sales
#1 in Faith
#1 in Angels
#1 in Self-help

For Barnes & Noble it ranked #323 in books. Again, I didn’t check Nook.


So, just as Dr. Oz pointed out how the frontal lobe of the brain experiences a chemical effect during prayer and meditation, I discovered that a book experiences a positive “retail effect” after being featured on the Dr. Oz show.

My brain has been overworked from all this data collection, so I'm going to take a break--just in time to watch today's Dr. Oz show.

Monday, January 26, 2015

Watch Dr. Oz on Wednesday to hear about Chicken Soup for the Soul: Touched by an Angel

I just received some exciting news from D'ette Corona, VP and Assistant Publisher of Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, LLC.

Here's the scoop:

This Wednesday, January 28th, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Touched by an Angel, will be featured on the Dr. Oz show. 

Foreword writer Gabby Bernstein will talk to Dr. Oz about the book. In addition, the show taped interviews with three contributors to the book. The interviews are expected to be shown as well!

While I'm not one of the lucky three contributors who were interviewed for the Dr. Oz show, my true story "A Patchwork of Hope" appears in the anthology.

Here is the link if you want to check your local listings for the show’s air time: http://www.locatetv.com/tv/dr-oz-show/9012555

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

It's hard to believe it's already 2015. The Christmas holiday seemed to whiz by, and after fighting a cold I'm just catching up. In fact, I'm late wishing everyone a happy new year, but I'm determined to get back on track.

At the end of last month I downloaded my writing planning calendar and have set my writing goals for 2015.

One new goal is that I've committed to journal each day in 2015. In the past I've journaled when I've traveled or at times in my life when I needed to record special or emotional events.  But this year I'm taking a structured approach.

Here's how I plan to stick to my journaling plan:

One page per day.
At the end of the day.
Journal and pen sit on the table next to the lamp that I turn off each night before turning in, so I won't forget to write.

After two days of success I think it might work.

How about you? Any new or improved goals for 2015?

Mysteries of the Ozarks, Volume V - Interviews with Lonnie Whitaker and Dr. Barri Bumgarner

Here is the second installment of interviews with contributors who have stories in Mysteries of the Ozarks, Volume V , from Ozark Writers, I...