Coutts Woman

The woman behind THE Book Club

Amanda Ross is a publishing sensation and she has never written a book. You may not have heard of Amanda Ross, but the chances are that she influenced the book you chose to take on holiday this year. And it is likely that any Christmas book you select as a gift will carry her endorsement.

Ross is the woman behind the phenomenally successful Richard & Judy Book Club. Any book selected as a ‘member’ of this exclusive club is guaranteed bestseller status, making Ross the most powerful woman in publishing.

It is an accolade that Ross, joint managing director of Cactus TV, producers of Richard & Judy, finds amusing. ‘It is strange to be the ‘most powerful person’ in an industry that you have nothing to do with, and can’t make any money out of,’ she laughs. ‘But I am thrilled to be taking books to a wider audience.’

Ross conceived the book club over two years ago. ‘I knew that books worked on the show,’ she explains. ‘Richard & Judy interviewed authors and that generated sales and interest. I wanted to do something that harnessed that effect, but I also wanted to find a way to do fiction.’

Channel 4, which broadcasts Richard & Judy, was initially unimpressed by the idea, believing that book shows were turn offs for viewers. ‘They basically said: ‘On your head, be it’,’ recalls Ross, who decided her head could take the strain.

‘A heavy book reader is likely to buy twelve books a year,’

As the book club essentially endorses the product, Ross set up a formal programme whereby publishers are invited to submit six books that have been published that year for consideration. This year there were 700 submissions, which Ross and her team of three sift through to select ten that will form the club. ‘A heavy book reader is likely to buy twelve books a year,’ explains Ross.  ‘We thought ten was saturation. For our first list we were making it up as we went along. We picked a real mix of books, including some that would be considered heavy and literary; the criterion they had to meet was that they had to be suitable for a sofa chat. But really the choice is largely gut instinct.’

It seems that the instincts of Ross and her team are spot on. The first book club, in 2004, contained Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, which is being turned into a film by Lord of the Rings producer Peter Jackson; Brick Lane by Monica Ali, which was longlisted for the Orange Prize and shortlisted for the Man Booker; and Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller, which is currently being made into a film starring Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett.

And hours after Bob Geldof described Joseph O’Connor’s The Star of the Sea, a novel about Irish refugees crossing the channel in 1847, as ‘a masterpiece’, it sold out on Amazon. It was only the second book to feature on the first Book Club, and the response stunned the publishing world.

The rules slightly changed for the later Book Clubs because Ross vowed not to include the same kind of book twice. ‘I do get quite dismayed with publishers who say ‘here is this year’s Labyrinth [a novel by Kate Mosse that featured in this year’s book club],’ says Ross. ‘Or the ones who say ‘Here is your Jodi Picoult [author of 2005 Book Club selection My Sister’s Keeper]’. There is a lot of fiction that lacks a strong narrative or an original idea.’

The Christmas book selection, which will be a one-off special on December 9, has also depressed her. ‘We are looking for gift books, but there is such a lot of rubbish out there,’ she explains. ‘I just think ‘what a waste of paper’.’

But Ross, who admits she doesn’t read ‘all of everything’, believes the Book Club has given people confidence. ‘People thought Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell, was too literary to put on our list, but it was voted the best book by our viewers in 2005 and was Booker nominated,’ she explains.

‘Bookshops can be scary things and 200,000 new titles are published every year. A book is not cheap, and can be quite a lot of money to some people. There is a risk that somebody is paying for something that they will throw away or give to the charity shop. We are not saying ‘you will love everything’ but we don’t think you’ll have wasted your money.’

Ross is coy about her favourite book. ‘I haven’t really got one,’ she says. ‘But I am passionate about reading and excited by a lot of new authors. I love that buzz at discovering a brilliant new read.’