UK Tv’s Richard & Judy’s Book Club has become a significant force in delivering a surge of sales to any book appearing on their recommended reading list. Although not experiencing the sales boost of Oprah’s influence, the numbers from UK sales are impressive.

With Richard & Judy’s recent announcement of their retirement, can the book list still function as a sales tool, or will it leave a large hole in the promotion opportunities available for authors and publishers?

It seems, in fact, that their retirement from daytime TV might be motivated by an increased interest in the publishing industry. Amanda Ross, Richard & Judy’s producer, has announced a continuation of the Book Club through new a new television presence running on Channel 4 in the UK. There is some question as to whether the lack of visible presence of Richard and Judy themselves on television screens, will reduce the selling and promotion power of their Book Club. Such clubs provide new scope for a handful of authors to reach a broader audience, but most importantly, they encourage readers to try something new and discover writing they would perhaps not have previously taken the risk of reading.

Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan themselves are wanting to spend more time on their personal writing projects, and so there is some motivation to retain the viability of their Book Club as a brand and platform for selling books, it will certainly increase their personal sales.

Ross feels the brand can be retained despite some difficult television scheduling of the ongoing programmes. Perhaps timing will be the key. Next year looks to be the UK’s National Year of Reading, which Ross has committed to support, and so there is opportunity to maintain the momentum already established by the Book Club.

The New York Times has released a list of what they regard as the 100 notable books of the Year 2007.

Split into Fiction & Poetry, and Nonfiction categories, this list comprises a broad selection of reading matter from the past year. Each listed title on the above page, links to a full review of the work.

Of interest to me as a writer is each book in the list is accompanied by a one sentence description. A great lesson in how to put together those always tricky to create straplines. The list page is worth a visit for that alone.

The list will be published in the December 2 print edition of the Book Review.

nbsp;Lulu.com, the online digital self publishing service, recently chatted with BBC Radio 5 Live about the future of publishing and whether companies such as Lulu are a threat for the traditional publishing business or fill a space traditional publishers cannot.

This is an advance peek at a rough cut of the interview which will be broadcast live sometime in December.

Catch it now on blip.tv before they remove it!