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What Makes a Bestseller a Bestseller?

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Blogger: Wendy Lawton

Who hasn’t picked up a New York Times bestselling book and thought, “Why is this book—or this author—a bestseller?” If you are a writer your next thought might come out sounding a little cranky, “My book is so much better than that one.” Maybe, but your book only netted 7,000 lifetime sales to the 240,000 copies sold the first week by the bestselling author.

So why does one book take off and another languish?

I could make this the shortest post in the history of our blog by answering with a two-word answer: Nobody knows.

Those of us in the publishing industry are constantly giving writers advice:dreamstime_xs_27350555

  • Write a high concept book.
  • Work hard on promoting your book.
  • Get great endorsements.
  • Choose a compelling subject.
  • Craft an excellent book.
  • Spend time networking through social media.
  • Enlist your friends and readers to talk about the book.
  • Be available to book clubs.
  • Visit bookstores.
  • Sponsor contests.

And it’s not just the author leveraging all his influence to make the book a success, the publishers are busy working like crazy to do the things that make a book sell:

  • Edit and copy-edit the book until it is a thing of beauty.
  • Create a breathtaking cover.
  • Write the kind of cover copy that will make readers take the book to the counter or click it into the shopping cart.
  • Get the book into reviewers’ hands.
  • Arrange for media.
  • Do as much with advertising as the budget will allow.
  • Get catalogs featuring the book into the hands of every buyer or decision maker.
  • Contact groups or ministries that may want to buy multiple copies of the book.
  • Work with libraries and special markets.
  • Get the sales team on the road, having them stop in small towns and big cities, hand selling your book to buyers.
  • Take the book to all the trade shows.

We could go on and on. That’s just a small fraction of what is done in support of a book. And guess what? Some good books do well, some good books do moderately well, some good books flounder and some good books utterly fail to find an audience. And once in a while a good book (and sometimes a not-so-good book) will shatter all expectations and become a bestseller.

Think of the last bestselling book you read. How did you hear about it? Why did you buy it? What do you think it was it that made the book a success?

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  1. What makes a book a best-seller? Two-word answer: God knows.
    *God knows who needs to read my book. I don’t like the image of me whining before the Throne of Grace, “I wrote it like you said, but it wasn’t a best seller. It’s all your fault” (sounds like Jonah, right?). And I don’t want to hang my head before the Throne and say, “it was too hard, so I didn’t try.” I prefer the image of meeting someone in heaven who says, “your book made a difference.”
    *So I write. God knows why.

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  2. No matter what the chances for success, I know one thing for certain. Nobody will read my book if I don’t write it; so I keep on writing.

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  3. Interesting essay, Wendy.
    * I wonder if perhaps there should be some speciation, separating breakout bestsellers from established-author bestsellers.
    1) Breakout bestsellers are perhaps driven by the element of surprise; they offer something that readers didn’t know they needed or wanted. They may speak to the baser parts of the psyche, which is always unfortunate, but some – like “The Purpose-Driven Life” – address the immortal longings of the soul for a better meaning to a fractured existence.
    2) Established-author bestsellers seem to have the warm quality of homecoming; you’ve been in this house before, but THIS room has been newly added, and you can’t wait to see what it’s like.
    * Today, with the country divided and angry as it hasn’t been since the 60s, there’s a implicit need for a breakout book, a new “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”, if you will. A book that will turn hearts and minds from enmity, and toward the real hope that lies within our reach.
    * Are YOU the one to write it?

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    • Great distinction, Andrew. You remind us that if an author works to become a bestselling author and then keeps to his or her brand, they can enjoy a long career as a bestseller.

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  4. It’s word of mouth for me, Wendy. Since making friends in this writing world, I don’t just pick up a book at the bookstore and purchase it, no matter what it looks like. Especially not for my kids. Because I’ll think … is it good for my eyes? Is it good for my mind? Is it good for my heart? Their eyes, their mind, their heart? I don’t know. Since making writing friends, every book I purchase comes by referral from B&S or trusted writers. Happy Thanksgiving. 🙂

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  5. My first reaction to this post is this. In the Christian realm, I believe the breakout best sellers often have the mystery of God compelling them forward. God gets His message out there through the pen of many of his ordinary people. It is through word of mouth that I hear about these books. Usually by then they are being sold at Costco and I can purchase them at a reasonable price. Great titles and visible author presence help, too. I love it when God uses a book to help change the world and make people think of that which is eternal. What a joy.

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  6. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us, Wendy. I find this post comforting rather than frustrating because it reminds me we can only do our best and leave the rest. There’s peace knowing that anything can happen, and so there’s no point trying to do everything. Striving to be a bestselling author isn’t worth losing our soul over. Soul; that’s what I loved about the recent bestselling book I read. In “One Thousand Gifts”, Ann Voskamp bared her soul just enough to hook the readers’ hearts while holding back enough to respect her family and herself. Word of mouth, via Facebook, is what drew me to her writing (Thank you, Jeanne & Shelli). Her writing is what made me buy the next book “The Broken Way”–which I’m loving. A. Lot. Soul sharing and soul caring is what makes a book a success in my eyes. This is my hope for my own memoir and fiction manuscripts.
    Blessings ~ Wendy Mac

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  7. Hmmm…the last 2 books I read (I’m re-reading one of them right now) are both best sellers. They are “The Heir of Novron” a self-published high fantasy epic that was picked up by a publisher after it sold LOTS of copies and “Pride and Prejudice” which has been selling for a long long time. I heard about the fantasy from my husband and he read me enough quotes and waxed eloquent about the plot twists and characterization and hilarious nature of the characters…that I caved. Yep, it was worth it. Fabulous book. Pride and Prejudice I heard about when a girlfriend forced me to watch the movie which I did not like…eventually they kept forcing me to watch the movie and I grew to enjoy it. Then I read the Twilight series and Stephanie Meyer said that Pride and Prejudice was the inspiration for one of her books. She named Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights, and the Merchant of Venice as inspiration for the other books. I read all of them and in my opinion Pride and Prejudice is by far the best. It is much better than the movie. So funny, so witty, so dang romantic! In both cases it was a friend that pushed me to read, but it was the humor in the book that made them favorites. Books should have some funny! Not all the time, but enough to make you laugh. That is what makes them best friends for me.

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    • I know those ones we get “pushed” into are often the best. Like the friend who told me I must read Pillars of the Earth. I dragged my feet– so much book, so little time. Dumb! It became a favorite.

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  9. One of the last non-CBA type bestsellers books I read was Cary Elwes’ memoir on his time and experience making The Princess Bride. It’s called As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride, and it was lovely.
    As most of you know, he played Westley, AKA The Dread Pirate Roberts. Elwes didn’t just blah blah blah I’m a famous Brit, blather blather bore bore. He admitted to having help with the book, but it was a conversation about falling in love with Buttercup, befriending a true giant, and all the love and heartache involved in being part of such an iconic film.
    What kept me reading? His style of “friends sitting around and chatting about a loved one”. The loved one, of course, was the film itself.
    He does spend considerable time discussing the non-stop fencing instruction he and Mandy Patinkin received from the 2 greatest fencing masters in the world. Yes, that was all them, other than the flips off the bars.
    I bought it somewhere in California as a gift for my BFF, 2 years ago. She made me schlepp it home this trip, because I hadn’t finished it while I was there in October/November.
    I will say that yes, when God is the ringmaster, we as writers can expect a serious circus when we open up to His lead. I could never have written my own story that has unfolded over the last (almost) 5 years. Am I upset that I’m not already in print? No, because the opportunities that have come in the waiting have been so ridiculously unpredicted that I’d be a fool to rush things on my own time.
    Unless you’re ready, do not dare ask God to “bring it”.
    I mean it. Really, really, Biblically and prayerfully READY.

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  10. Great post, Wendy. For me, I don’t rush to buy a bestseller just because it’s a bestseller. 🙂 I often buy books on recommendations of others, or if I’ve read other books by the author and loved those books.
    *Rachel Hauck is one of those authors for me. I loved her, The Wedding Dress, which reached the NYT best sellers list FOUR YEARS after it came out. I just finished her, The Wedding Shop, and I loved it.
    *Other bestsellers I’ve read? The Help. I waited a long time to read that one, mostly because I don’t read a lot of ABA. I was surprised at how much I liked it. 🙂 I think the distinct, different POV’s, the story line, the time frame the story was set in, and Ms Stockett’s voice drew me in.
    *I also really, really resonated with Ann Voskamp’s One-Thousand Gifts. Her words spoke to a place in my heart at a time in my life when I needed to read them. Her lyrical voice was one I found I liked. I think her truths, shared through her own vulnerability, drew readers in.

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