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Sunday, August 4, 2013

WANT TO KNOW HOW TO WRITE A BESTSELLER?

{Victor's Mother courtesy of the fabulous Leonora Roy}
 
Struggling authors will be the most rabid readers of James Hall’s new book, “Hit Lit: Cracking the Code of the 20th Century’s Biggest Bestsellers,” and they may well learn from it.

I know I am struggling to understand it and the yearning that inspired it.

Hall, a creative-writing professor and crime novelist,

teaches a course on “megabestsellers,” books that have sold in the “multiple millions”

and that have gone on selling for decades after they were originally published.

Would you call Dan Brown a “good writer?”

 Yet many very successful novelists are not: Stieg Larsson some would say is not.

 A book doesn’t have to be especially well-written, plausible or original to be a bestseller.

The characters don’t have to be particularly interesting, as John Grisham proves again and again. In fact, if there is one trait that all of the bestsellers Hall considers absolutely share:

 A lot of people like them.

Duh!

Yet, advertising and begging cannot make someone like you.  I know.  Cate Blanchett remains immune to my charm!

At least half the books on any given week’s bestseller list are there to the immense surprise and puzzlement of their publishers.

So why does the public fall in love with some crappy books but not others?

Most bestsellers combine familiar elements in less familiar ways —

the recipe for successful genre fiction.

“Gone With the Wind” transported the career-woman melodramas of its time into a historical romance.

“The Godfather” is a family saga grafted onto a gangster story.

The sensational historical-religious conspiracy theory at the center of “The Da Vinci Code” had already appeared in a nonfiction bestseller:

Brown’s brainstorm was to change the delivery mechanism to a fast-paced thriller.

Lesson:
YOU HAVE TO BE THE FIRST TO TWIST THE FAMILIAR IN AN UNFAMILIAR WAY.

50 SHADES OF GREY has spawned a tidal wave of erotica, none of whose titles have caught on in a wild-fire way.  THERE IS ONLY ONE FIRST.

E. L. James emerged from the word-of-mouth factory that is Twilight fandom,

and as a result her books introduced hundreds of thousands of readers to a genre they didn’t know existed,

much as Stephenie Meyers had introduced them to the vampire romance novel a few years before.

Lesson:
YOU CANNOT CONTROL WORD OF MOUTH;

YOU CAN ONLY BE PREPARED TO RIDE THE WAVE

SHOULD YOU FIND YOURSELF ATOP IT.

(Have several books already written before you publish the first.)

The one predictive factor that readers consistently rely on is brand loyalty:

an author who has done it once, they assume, is likely to do it again.

That’s why the most consistent aspect of the bestseller lists is the reappearance of the same names, over and over.

Last Lesson:
WRITE THE BOOK YOU WOULD ENJOY READING.

Your heart will be in it, and it will show. 

Your time will have been spent with a smile on your face.  And is that such a bad thing?



9 comments:

  1. Twice I've tried to read Dragon Tattoo. Still can't do it. I was forced to read a page in Shades by an enthusiastic friend. I really wasn't impressed. In any kind of way. I liked Grisham way back in the beginning. But he started sounding the same. Like my beloved Koontz. Even James Rollins. I read because I must find what happens in the end.

    You're right. We need a new spin, an alternate perspective. And lots of word of mouth.

    I just watched Cate in the second Elizabeth movie. She's amazing!

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  2. I totally think getting in there first with a most original twist to a universal idea is the key and plenty of luck - and timing and more luck!! And grabbing "the public's imagination" - whatever that is! And lots and lots of luck! LOL!

    Publishing is such a crazy world! Take care
    x

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  3. I wonder how much crossover there is between author loyalty and brand loyalty...

    Also, Roland, you wanted to know when I posted sales observations on my blog. Here is the link:

    http://uparoundthecorner.blogspot.com/2013/08/sales-observations-at-book-events-since.html

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  4. I'm really counting on the brand loyalty thing. And I did write what I'd want to read.

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  5. I like Cate as well, she has the same appeal for me as Katherine Hepburn - a strong female image and she knows how to use it!

    Those writers who can't be original will bank on being part of the tailwind.

    Being first brings in the bucks, but I think being unique is more important for staying power.

    I can't see 50 Shades being on any teacher's class discussion list, but I could be wrong.

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  6. Being a bestseller was something I sorta fantasized about when I first published Neverlove. I thought it had enough of a twist on the hell vs. heaven/good vs. evil angle and it was - okay, it is - a story I would sit down to read again and again. I just knew people would flock to it. That is still a possibility, but I've learned to embrace the word lover in me even more so that if my book becomes a best seller, that would be awesome, but I'm the last person to ever give a class or tips on how to sell one since I'm not exactly there. And even there, I still wouldn't know what to say lol!!

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  7. Words Crafter:
    You should see Cate in BLUE JASMINE. Woody Allen's take on A STREET CAR NAMED DESIRE. Your heart goes out to everyone in the movie in some way.

    Thanks, Kitty:
    It is a strange, crazy world. And you're right: success in publishing is mostly luck and kismet timing. Who can teach us to get those things? LOL.

    Terry:
    Thanks for the link. I slept most of the day to recover from the work weekend! It is a hard call to distinguish between brand and author loyalty -- some readers demand that their authors stay in the genre in which they first met them. I will read a favorite author no matter if they are writing essays or fantasies or true crime -- if only their writing is excellent.

    Alex:
    I am sure you will do fantastic!

    D.G:
    Cate is my favorite actress. Yes, SHADES is not something destined to be a classic taught in classes!!

    Originality is the life's blood of any form of entertainment.

    Angela:
    I purposedly pointed to that book. Like you, I surely could not pontificate on what it takes to make a bestseller!

    Like you, I believe in my books, but how to get them out of the tiny neighborhood of authors talking to other authors, right?

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  8. Bam! Take that, Grisham, with your millions of sold books.

    I think the most important thing to remember is that unlike surfing, people who suddenly find themselves on the top of the book-storm wave don't actually make the wave. At least, that's what I keep reminding myself.

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  9. J E:
    E L James has millions of sold books, too. But it is not the sort of prose I would be comfortable in writing.

    Yes, apparently millions love Grisham, despite his shallow characterizations -- Issac Asimov did the same -- the two writers created situations you just wanted to see what would happen next from THE FIRM to FANTASTIC VOYAGE!

    I believe you're right. We must paddle as hard as we can so that if or when the book-storm wave comes, we have a board worthy to ride it on! :-)

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