"What Makes a Book a Best Seller?" by Sara Nelson
(Hint: It’s not all reviews, word of mouth, or advertising. Sometimes it’s not even Oprah….)
One of the great pleasures of most of my mornings lately has been to sit down and look through the best sellers lists; I’m a little nerdy, I admit, but I do feel at peace when I notice that even while I slept nothing much had changed in Bookland. Fifty Shades of Grey, in all forms, is still at the top of our lists, and Gone Girl; is never far behind.
But then I get further down on the lists, where the surprises start happening. Suddenly, for example, I spot David Mitchell’s brilliant Cloud Atlas at #53, a book originally published in 2004. Why the sudden surge in popularity, I wonder. It’s not a book for absolutely everyone–it’s difficult and loooong. Some snooping around the Web reveals that it’s also about to be released as a movie, and the trailer for said movie– starring Halle Berry– came out in late July. We always know that when a movie hits the screen, the book on which it’s based will soon hit the best sellers list, even (or maybe particularly) if the book hasn’t been that high-profile in the first place: I’m thinking, for example of The Descendants, which enjoyed a nice ride around the time the George Clooney movie came out. Likewise the huge success of The Perfect Storm, book and film, when that one appeared. (Hmm. That movie starred George Clooney, too. Coincidence? You decide) And I don’t have info from this far back, but I’d bet you when Sissy Spacek played Carrie in the 1976 movie, the Stephen King novella shot to the top, too.
But trailers? They– or rather their reach– has changed a bit since this thing called the Internet came along. I would have said, for example, that The Great Gatsby is sitting around #13 on the Amazon Books best sellers list these days because it’s required summer reading for lots of high school kids and/or being bought to be read in English class in the fall. And that may be part of it. Except then I learned that there’s a new Baz Luhrman 3-D version of the classic Fitzgerald book coming out in 2013 (starring Leonardo DiCaprio)–and the trailer was released in late May.
Still, let’s speak more about course adoption and required summer reading lists. Because looking at these lists, you start to see a pattern: books you haven’t thought about since high school are made famous again by high schools and colleges [or “by English teachers”]. How else to explain how Brave New World; has spent 62 days in Amazon’s top 100, lately at around #89? Unless I missed it, there isn’t a new movie version in the works. Ditto Things Fall Apart; which is a perennial bestseller thanks in part to appearing on many high school reading lists. In the New York Times last June, Claire Nedell Hollander, a middle-school teacher, admitted she and her colleagues would be happy if their students read the obvious coming of age books like To Kill a Mockingbird, but she also recommended such modern classics as the graphic and disturbing A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah’s memoir of being a boy soldier in Sierra Leone. Sarah Crichton, who published that book at her eponymous imprint, hoped the book would be course-adopted (one reason she kept it short, she says), but she worried that its graphic scenes of war would be too much for high schoolers. “We owe a lot to the teachers of America,” she says.
So, probably, does the estate of JD Salinger, whose Catcher in the Rye has been in the top 100 for at least the past nine months; likewise the late Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, which lands this week at #99 and has been thereabouts for the past 337 days. Why? It’s a perennially popular gift for grads.
Who says the American education system is out of whack? Obviously, students are reading–a lot–at least when a book promises to help them make the grade. To wit, what book, would you guess, has spent 875 days in the top 100? Is it something by John Steinbeck, or maybe Toni Morrison? Is it, perchance, Gone with the Wind or even The Firm? Sorry, not quite. The book that holds this not-so-dubious distinction is one that every high school junior (or his parent) has bought or is about to buy: it’s called the Official SAT Study Guide, and it’s had a little plunge lately, but as of this writing, the newest version was still listed at an impressive #36.
SusiQ34683 on August 07, 2012 at 03:42 AM
And I'd be interested in some of the reasons behind this bestseller: A bestseller, yes, but was it ever read through to the end? A Brief History of Time.
Susan on August 07, 2012 at 06:14 PM
I read in an article somewhere that Rushdie's Satanic Verses is the number one bestseller (fiction) that nobody's actually read. In nonfiction, Bill Clinton's My Life.
Jim Gilliam on August 12, 2012 at 04:52 AM
The more I learn about the craft of writing, the more I'm convienced that being on the New York Times, or any bestseller list is a matter of marketing and not the quality of writing. I recently purchased a NYT Bestseller. None of the things that I look for in a book were there. There was no hook. No hook and this reader fish swims away. In my review I said that if I had picked the book off of the shelf in my local bookstore I would not have purchased it. Alas, I purchased it online based upon the author's reputation and believe it or not, the fact that it was a NYT Bestseller. So much for that criterion.
You're right though, required reading lists for school, work, and just trying to suck up to the boss who is an avid reader of such-in-such author do seem to operate the market, thereby creating bestsellers. Movies, absolutely! John Grisham self-published his first book A TIME TO KILL and sold it out of the trunk of his car at flea markets and meetings of local garden clubs. According to an interview that I read, he ended up taking a whole bunch of these books to the trash dump. Then the movie of the second book THE FIRM came out and A TIME TO KILL appeared on the bestselling circuit followed by the blockbusting movie. Although both are excellent books, I don't know that I can see them becoming required reading in high schools and colleges.
Catherine Broughton on August 12, 2012 at 07:00 AM
I seem to recall reading somewhere that The Bible is the most purchased book in the world ? I wonder how true that is ? When you think of how many copies churches buy, and how many copies get distributed around hotels and third-world missions, I expect the numbers run in to millions. Note, however, that I did say "the most purchased" and not "the most read" !
José Miguel Roig on August 12, 2012 at 01:38 PM
I have self-published a novel called The Abd-al-Rahman Mandate. It's a thriller in the vein of The Da Vinci Code, but refering to Islam rather than Catholicism. I sent it to Kirkus and it got a good review. What do I do next? I have given a copy to all my friends, but I still have some left. Do I throw them away? Probably I should...
Frank J. Winchester on August 13, 2012 at 08:21 AM
I agree that a review of a book frequently is misleading and I believe frequently pushes only more of the same that has in the past been successful. Original and authenic viewpoints and events are not desired by some "professional reviewers". Frank J. Winchester author of Fully Human
Barry Dennis on August 13, 2012 at 12:26 PM
I was recently signed with Hay House who published my first book, The Chotchky Challenge. It has received great reviews from notable people and is selling well here on amazon and beyond. However, with very few exceptions, i can tell you for sure, authors sell books- books don't sell themselves. Yes, a book becoming a movie and "required readings" will always sell but 99% of all books are unknown, waiting for the author to do something about it. Some of these books are very good. Better then many best sellers.
It's a shame really. An authors job is not as much writing as it is selling.