Oh No, Oprah’s Back!

  

As soon as I saw the news flash across my phone — Oprah Winfrey Podcast Comes To Amazon — I knew it would only be a matter of time before I get asked the O question: Can you get me on Oprah?  

Let me pre-announce this now to all authors: No!  

She will air twice-a-week video podcasts. How many guests will she have? Will she have guests? What topics will she want to cover?   

No one knows — but it does not matter. You, dear author, have virtually no shot at getting on her show. Zilch. Nada. Zero.  

Not her show.

Nor in the book club.

Not even on her social media. 

And I am an optimistic and opportunistic kind of guy, a book promoter who has worked with thousands of authors and have executed or oversaw well over 100,000 unique media placements for books — interviews, article mentions, feature stories, and byline articles. Oprah is just on her own planet and an indie author, especially one of fiction, poetry, short stories, essays, or children’s books, has improbably low, low, low odds of getting onto her show. 

Look at reality. She has access to presidents of nations, billionaire entrepreneurs, star athletes, celebrities, best-selling authors, and all kinds of experts. You are not on her radar.  

Look at the numbers. If she is doing two shows a week, and ignoring that she will have vacations, she won’t exceed 100 new shows a year. With as many as four million books published annually, the odds are something like one in 40,000 authors that you will be interviewed — if all interview slots went to authors. And they won’t, so this looks unreal to all but maybe a few dozen authors in the world. 

I don’t care how good your book is, how many reviews it had earned, or how many awards it just won. You are not cracking the Oprah Code. Yes, it is sad but true.  

So, please don’t ask about getting on Oprah. The answer is, and always will be, no!

 

Do You Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator! 

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 6,200,000 page views. With 5,600+ posts over the past 15 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs  by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2026.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully) and (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/10-things-my-dog-taught-me-about-marketing-books). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, three times at BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, five times at Morgan James Publishing Red Carpet, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum