Diane Sawyer delivers.
Sawyer's primetime ABC interview with Amanda Knox has given Knox's memoir, Waiting to Be Heard, a big sales boost.
The book has moved into Amazon's top five sellers. At the end of last week, the book had not managed to crack the e-retailer's top 100 for books.
First-week sales details from Bookscan won't be available until May 8, but Amazon numbers provide a good leading indicator of sales.
Overnight ratings for the special were also strong. ABC hit a 12-week high in the 10 p.m. Tuesday slot with a 1.7 rating among adults 18-49 and 8.5 million viewers.
The strong bump is a good sign for publisher HarperCollins, which paid a reported $4 million for the story of the Seattle college student ensnared in the murder of her British roommate.
The news also confirms a Sawyer interview as one of the most reliable promotional vehicles for a book.
In just the last two years, specials hosted by Sawyer have given boosts to books by Jaycee Dugard, Bob Woodward, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and a newly-released collection of Jackie Kennedy recordings.
ABC also announced Wednesday that Sawyer has nabbed an exclusive book-related interview with Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old Pakistani student shot by Taliban militants for advocating schooling for girls.
The interview will air in October in conjunction with the release of her memoir, I Am Malala, which is slated for publication around the one-year anniversary of her shooting on October 9.
