They certainly do when an author appears on The Colbert Report. Colbert has been known to report the specific numbers, citing the “Colbert bump” when an author moves up in the Amazon rankings after an appearance on his show. The bump is most noticeable for the more obscure authors, whose only national exposure may be Colbert’s show.
I have bought a number of books after seeing their authors on The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. Now that I have a Kindle, it’s just a matter of opening it up and downloading the sample.
I also recently read a great book that was briefly mentioned by the author when he appeared on an episode of History Detectives (“A Thread Across the Ocean” by John Steele Gordon).
Me, too. I heard C. J. Cherryh give a Guest of Honor talk at Worldcon and picked up several of her books, and pre-ordered Brin’s “Kiln People” after hearing him read the first chapter at the same con (I probably would have read that one anyway, since I already was a Brin fan, but hearing the part of the story read bumped it up on my list), and I read Steven Barnes after hearing him speak also.
Book TV, CSPN2 on weekends does in depth interviews with authors and I have picked up several of them. They include Freakonomics, Confessions of an Economic Hitman and several others.
I often buy and read books after I hear the author on NPR- Diane Rehm Show or Fresh Air. This might actually be my main source for new books. Also the reviews by Maureen Corrigan on Fresh Air.
I don’t think this is the correct use of “shill.” A shill is an accomplice planted in the audience to help the person on stage promote himself. Like if the author is being interviewed and the author’s sister jumps up in the audience and shouts, “I don’t know Mr. Jones but I loved his book!!” Maybe I’m wrong and shill has a broader definition.
Do you mean Jonathan Kellerman, who writes the Alex Delaware books, or James Patterson and just got the main character mixed up? I don’t read Patterson but I do read Kellerman, and hearing that would kind of annoy me.
Where else do you get to hear about new and interesting books? Some magazines I read have some book reviews, but they’re usually fiction and I gravitate more towards non-fiction at the moment. Sometimes I do check Amazon’s (or my library’s) new releases section, but hearing the author discuss the book for a few minutes gives me a good idea whether or not I’d enjoy the book.
NY Times Books Section including podcast & Salon.com Books section & most of The New Yorker
For the OP, only once I went and bought the book when I saw Christopher Hitchens on Real Time with Bill Maher - book was “Hitch-22”. But I already knew it would be a good read so his appearance was kind of a reminder.