The Age-Old Mystery of Bestselling Titles
People have been wondering about it for ages. It’s a mystery that is yet to be solved and over the centuries, many have attempted to try and give some sort of an explanation about it but to no avail. No one has yet to find an answer to the question about how is it possible that some books become best sellers and some do not.
How can a struggling mom-slash-writer come up with a series that will get the whole world camping out in front of the bookstore as it waits for its next instalment? And how come an established author who has written a whole lot of books in his lifetime couldn’t sell much on one book to make it a bestselling piece?
Bookstore owners and publishers are always going through a constant guessing game when picking out which books would sell and which ones wouldn’t. It’s a gamble. Could it be marketing? Or the author’s reputation? Or is it just the times?
How did they do it?
When JK Rowling started the Harry Potter series, she was a struggling mom who could barely pay her bills. A decade and seven books later, she is now one of the most celebrated writers for young adult fiction and has her books are enjoying the top spots in any bestseller list. If you look at it closely, Harry Potter is much like any other book in its genre. It has all the ingredients that will attract young adults – magic, adventure and humour. But then again, so do other titles. But what was it exactly that made it a hit?
No one really knows.
It’s probably the fact that it offered something new as far as the concept of magic was concerned. It may be because of word-of-mouth advertising – that is, one kid discovered it was good enough and got everyone he knew to read about it. And soon, the whole world is already reading Harry Potter.
Familiarity
In some cases, the author’s name is enough to make a book sell. Take John Grisham or Oprah for instance. They are people who have established a reputation in their industries. People are already familiar with these names so they wouldn’t mind having their latest books in their bookshelves. Oprah is a great talker so it probably follows that her reading materials and even the books that she recommends are good enough.
But what of the new ones? Dan Brown, for instance, was hardly somebody before the Da Vinci Code. Oddly enough, his book made it on the bestselling lists.
Content
Da Vinci Code piqued the reader’s interest because it seemed to question Christianity and its roots – something that isn’t exactly blatantly done. It deigned to put into view other literature that seems to go against some of the concepts that have been inculcated in people for centuries.
A book can become a bestseller if it contains something that would attract a reader’s curiosity. It could also be a hot item if it’s something that could help him in his life. This is why self-help books have always been fixtures in the bestseller lists.
There are no clear guidelines on how to turn a book into a bestseller because there’s no way to second-guess how the audience would think. But Books Buyer can definitely fill you in on the greatest and latest books that would tickle your fancy or pick your brain – whichever you want, really.
