We move from the 1980s to the 1990s, when it was a little easier to sell your books… but only marginally. “Where’s John Grisham?” was one comment I got regarding my post on how few authors reached #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list in the 1980s. The answer? Lying in the long grass, waiting to own the…
Category: The Numbers Behind Bestsellers
Bestseller Trends Part 2: Fantasy Vs Misery
This is not news to most people, but I’m going to tell you anyway. As readers, we generally want to read something which is far removed from our experience, and possibly at the extreme other end of the spectrum. In good times we sink our teeth into tragedy. In bad times we want comedy. Perhaps it was the…
Only 33.5 Authors wrote Bestsellers in the 1980s. Fact
It’s Reeling in the Years time. First stop, those big-haired, blockbusting 1980s. You may not know this yet, but book sales were remarkably different in the ’80s. (I know, because I’ve charted the last 3 decades already into earth-shatteringly revealing, multicoloured pies, and I don’t mind telling you, I haven’t been this excited by data since checking my Santa…
Bestseller Trends Part I: Women
In which we revisit those bestseller lists, and I wonder if I should have drawn some nice bunny rabbits to make them prettier* Another pattern is evident from the 2012 bestseller list. Of the top 15, there were only 3 men, and one of those was Tolkien, who had already been dead for some time. Despite Lee…
Self-publishing and e-publishing ——The authors are revolting!
Revolting, I tell you! Depending on who’s talking – author or print publisher – it could have either meaning. This whole publishing lark has opened up. A quick look at the bestseller lists from recent years, following the e-book revolution, shows it. People are reading different stuff nowadays. Whether it’s because they’re finally able to get what they…
Tara Sparling writes 