Will Oprah Hire VP of Book Selections?

GL Hoffman

Here is my confident prediction for 2009: Oprah will hire a vice president of book selections for her show. This is a new position and one that you will not find on any job board. You may apply here in the comments, if you want. 

It was revealed yesterday that another of her guests fabricated some of his book, just like James Frey before him. It made the news, and you can read more over at my home blog at www.whatwoulddadsay.com. If one mistake is an accident, then two must be a trend, and a potential third mistake for Oprah and Harpo cannot be good. Oprah cannot go on recommending authors who are allegedly fabricators and prevaricators. Trust and credibility and all that . . . Nielsen.

Call it what you will, or she will, but she needs to get herself a scapegoat—and fast. Then, in the future, when this happens again, she can simply point to "Sally," the new VP of book selections, and demand her resignation. It was HER, she did it. This is known as "them, not me" in CEO language. 

So, if you were head of HR at Harpo, how would you describe this new job? What accomplishments and achievements would you want to see on the résumé? What experience? Which companies would make good training ground for this job? Can you write a job description?

Or, if you want this job yourself, create and leave us your 'elevator pitch' for it right here. You have 200 words to convince us.

G.L. Hoffman is a serial entrepreneur and venture investor/operator/incubator/mentor. Two of his companies have traveled the entire success path from the garage to IPO. Currently, he is chairman of JobDig and his blog can be found at WhatWouldDadSay.com or at JobDig.com.

Corrected on 12/30/08: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that an author who fabricated parts of his book was featured in Oprah's Book Club. He and his wife were guests on Oprah Winfrey's show, and his memoir has been canceled.