Oprah to Announce Next Book Club Pick on Monday

Oprah Winfrey is on a farewell tour of sorts, what with The Oprah Winfrey Show ending its 25 year run in 2011. But those who were saddened by the thought that Jonathan Franzen's No. 1 bestseller Freedom might be her final pick for her wildly popular Book Club can breathe a little easier: You get at least one more.

According to the Associated Press, Oprah will select a new book for instant bestsellerdom on Dec. 6. That's the same day that Franzen will make his appearance on the show, almost a decade after the author was infamously disinvited by Oprah after he expressed discomfort with the selection of his literary bestseller, The Corrections.

But what will Oprah's 65th Book Club pick be? Cursory sleuthing on DailyFinance's part reveals that the book, which will be published as a trade paperback on Monday and priced at $20.00 (discounted to $13.60 on Amazon (AMZN), with the Kindle edition priced at $7.99) is published by Penguin. (PSO) The publisher even had a landing page at one point, though it has since been removed (Google Cache, however, saved the details.) Amazon also classifies the book in the "novelty", "fiction-general" and "non-classifiable" categories.

What's interesting about this Book Club pick is that Harpo Productions announced the impending selection with less than a week to spare, which appears to be the fastest turnaround time in the show's history. The lid is being kept on tight this time out: Other recent Book Club picks were tipped in advance by independent booksellers who published available information such as price, ISBN numbers and the like online in advance of the official announcement.

Most notably for the publishing industry, perhaps, is the listed Kindle price: $7.99 is significantly lower than what Kindle books from Penguin and related imprints cost, thanks to their adherence to the agency model, under which retailers take a 30% cut from the digital list price. This model often means customers pay more than they would for books sold by publishers using the wholesale model, under which retailers sometimes discount from the hardcover price and sell at a loss.

Penguin did not respond to requests for comment.