“Oprah Winfrey changed Michele Weldon’s literary life. But it took a little doing. The Chicago author and Medill School of Journalism prof’s first book, ‘I Closed My Eyes: Revelations of a Battered Woman,’ a 1999 memoir, had just been published and she thought it perfect ‘Oprah’ material — so perfect that four times annually over the next three years, she rang up one of the show’s producers to gently pitch its worthiness.” The odds of succeeding as Weldon did are extremely slim. “But Oprah’s track record is too stunning, the stuff of lore, rife with publishing industry success stories. So authors keep doing what Weldon did: storming the compound — literally and figuratively — to gain notice.”