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…
5 Things Emerging Authors Should Be Writing
If we knew what was sure to sell, wouldn’t we all be writing it? Aye, there’s the rub. But some types of fiction lend themselves more to breakthrough bestsellers than others. Here are 5 of them. 1. The “Dammit, I Could’ve Had That Idea!” These are the books we all could have written if we’d only thought…
Fiction Genres: what sells?
If we can’t tell who is going to be a bestseller anymore just by the author, can we tell what genre of book or story will be a bestseller? It’s easy to say that a good book will sell itself, but that’s simply not the case. Sometimes a certain genre will become very big very quickly and authors…
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…
What Makes a Bestseller?
Trendspotting, or a Shamelessly Business-Like Approach to Writing It’s tempting to think that the democratisation of bookselling through self-publishing and e-publishing means that it’s harder than ever to rise above the noise and get published or more to the point, sell your book. Not at all. The deafening cacophony which once drowned out new authors…
Tara Sparling writes 