How to write a best-seller?

[Greybeard]

Most fantasy novels never find a significant audience. A select few, however, go on to have massive sales.

What makes these novels different? Is there is a secret to writing a best-selling fantasy novel?

 

[Telcontar]

Is there is a secret to writing a best-selling fantasy novel?

No.

Success for anything is a careful blend of quality, marketing, and timing. Deficiencies in one category must be made up for in the others.

 

[Ophiucha]

Timing is perhaps the biggest key to success. You publish your book at the end of a big trend and your book could become the next one. That is one of the big booms to Twilight's success. It caught our eye right around when the last Harry Potter book came out. The last trend. Or you could simply write something in a trend. Based on the popularity of Hunger Games, I would guess the next trend is dystopian YA fiction.

There is also a big difference between success in the genre and mainstream success. Take, for instance, The Name of the Wind. Very popular amongst fantasy readers, but you'll just get a blank stare if you mention it to anyone who doesn't read much in the genre. It wasn't a bestseller, but it won a few awards. There are different measures of success. If you're looking to make some money, I'd say wait until the Hunger Games have died down in popularity; it might take a while, since there are movies on the way. Or you can just write up some trashy dystopian YA fiction that rips off a better dystopian book meant for adults and you'll be a bestseller no matter how shite it is.

 

[Theprogrammingforum]

Thank you for these helpful tips!

 

[Kelise]

Currently, I think best sellers are books that anyone of different levels of reading interest can read. Twilight and Hunger Games are at the same writing standard, along with those books by Cassandra Clare which are also in all the lists.

People these days want distraction and escapism. People I know who 'don't' read, all adore Twilight, Hunger Games, Cassandra Clare... and can't seem to read or be interested in reading anything that's - in the nicest way possible - written with a higher level of depth.

So while I don't think it's the answer to the secret, I think it's what's currently popular. VERY easy to read books, that appeal to the masses, but... not... people who read like we do. It comes down to what you want. To be incredibly popular and make loads of money, or be proud of what you've written whilst appealing to only a smaller part of the market, like Abercrombie and Rothfuss.

...Yes, that was rather narky of me, I apologise. I've read the Twilight books, and Cassandra Clare, and try as I may I couldn't get through a few pages of Hunger Games without wanting to hit my head around a few times and return to the safety of the true Battle Royale. Feel free to disagree with me in every way, the above are just my humble - very humble - opinions.

 

[Philip Overby]

Never heard of Hunger Games. Guess I'm out of the loop. Keep in mind, bestsellers can be any number of things. Diet books. A memoir of Sarah Palin. How to make goat milk.

Someone in the publishing industry once told me about 90 percent of what sold in fiction was romance. If you weren't writing romance then you were likely not making much money writing. And most writers who make a living off their writing are what are called "mid-level" writers. Meaning their books don't sell very much and they barely manage a living off of their sales.

Basically, the chance of getting a bestseller in fantasy is about the same chance of you winning the lottery. Unless you stumble upon a trend. Like others said, that doesn't really require any virtuosic writing.

Trends usually rank in the amount of money they make like this:

1. Stuff the majority of young girls like (vampire romances, Hello Kitty, puppies, angsty high school dramas)
2. Stuff the majority of middle-aged women like (romances, self-help books, books about raising kids)
3. The endless cycle of vampire-werewolf-zombie (mix and match)
4. Writing that is really good and merits being a bestseller (about 1 percent)

Notice I said "majority" as in I'm not making some sweeping judgment about female readers. But the majority of what sells is based on this majority.

Quite frankly, men don't control trends in reading. Men make up a pretty small percentage of the reading populace now. More men seem to be getting into fantasy now than in the past however. Where SF was always for men, and fantasy was for women, that "trend" seems to be changing.

Anyway, if you want to write a bestseller for the most part, find out what teenage girls like and go write that.

 

[DavidP]

The writing must appeal on different levels.

Look at Dr Who for example. My six year old sits there fascinated my the monsters and aliens and can recount the story he understood afterwards. I am seeing the undercurrents between the Doctor and Amy and get all the small stuff a kid misses. Dr Who is written on different levels so it appeals to all.

That is good writing.

 

[Ravana]

What makes these novels different?

I think that's a self-answering question: they're different.

While it's possible to get lucky with a well-timed piece of unoriginal drivel (Sword of… yeah, you know), I doubt it's possible to anticipate when the "next big thing" precisely enough to know what it is likely to be and have your manuscript ready right when that peak occurs. Apart from that, you'll need to create something enduring, so that it will continue to sell over time–which means originality, quality prose, compelling characters, etc.

Brooks got lucky because he got his first book out ahead of everyone else trying to ride the wave of fantasy renewal that D&D brought about. Had his instead been the fourth or fifth such book, it wouldn't have been a best-seller, wouldn't have been remembered, might not have even been accepted for publication. Similarly, who would've guessed that the public was (apparently) breathlessly awaiting vampire stories right when Anne Rice released Interview? (Though in her case, it actually was a well-written, enduring story… unlike many of her subsequent "efforts.") Meyers's success was a bit more predictable–but that's because her novels appealed to a demographic outside of the normal fantasy market.

If there's one "tip" that might prove useful, it's to look at whatever was popular twenty or thirty years ago but which isn't being written at this particular moment. This gives you the dual opportunity of catching a new generation of book-buyers who are probably unfamiliar with the previous works as well as appealing to the nostalgia of the generation that bought them back when. In order to catch the latter, though, your work will need to remind them of their old faves–not duplicate it.

 

[Mdnight Falling]

I find it's publicity. Most of your BIG sellers didn't do very well when their books first came out... they didn't get big until movies were made or tv ads or toys.. etc.. Promotions do a lot to enhance the sales of anything.. It's almost like brain washing if you really think about it. The story could be horrible, but if enough big names are paid to say it's good... It flies off the shelves. I like a few big namers myself... But I also like the no name. For instance, I truly do enjoy reading the stories you all post on here because they're fresh and new. Most of the stuff I've seen lately is just the same thing with different characters and back grounds. I like to be different, to think outside the box. I think everyone of us here has the potential to make the big namers that shouldn't have been made big namers remember why they wrote their first book. I doubt any of us will sell out like they did

 

[Kelise]

To do with publicity... what do you all think of giveaways? Sometimes when a new book comes out, it's incredibly easy to get a free copy of it through some means - facebook giveaway, publisher giveaway, etc

Though honestly, I don't think I've ever enjoyed a book that's been given away so freely. I don't know if subconsciously I think that means it's cheap, not worth paying for, they think it needs all the help it can get... but I've just honestly never enjoyed a book that I've seen been thrown every which way to anyone who puts their hand up for a free copy.

So should we be careful with publicity? Which kind of publicity works?

 

[Ophiucha]

Giveaways. Hmm, that's a tough one. On the one hand, for a new writer, it has its benefits. You want to build a fanbase, but people might not want to take a chance on a new writer when dozens of established authors are still publishing a book every two years. But I agree that a book you can find easier for free on Twitter than in a bookstore is not exactly a good sign. I would argue that some sort of freebie - a short story related to the book posted on the author's website, or perhaps access to a Q&A if you buy a copy of the book - would help boost sales.

 

[Ravana]

So should we be careful with publicity? Which kind of publicity works?

Oh, that one's easy: so long as you aren't the one paying for it, take all the publicity you can get, regardless of form. (Okay, maybe not "regardless": all the appropriate publicity you can get.…)

 

[Amanita]

How to write a best-seller?
My first answer. I doubt that it can be done on purpose. But that might just be my personal that looking at trends and trying to create a story out of them can't really lead to anything good. At least, as long as the author doesn't also manage to put in something important to him or her.

What is so special about the books that have become best-sellers?
In the case of the Lord of the Rings I think it's just the simple fact that it is a very-written and thought-out book. The author put in lot's and lot's of effort and it shows without becoming boring and obnoxious. (Concerning Hobbits put aside ) This goes so far that for many writer and creators of computer games and so on, the fantasy world and races of Lord of the Ring actually are what a fantasy world has to be like, what Elves and Dwarves have to be like and so on.
There have been plenty of books using various aspects from Lord of the Rings, some of them successful, some of them less so but none of them anything close to the original.

And than there's Harry Potter. What's so special about that? Well, firstly I think modern readers like to have a story that's closer to their own lives than they Lord of the Rings. It's much easier to identify with Harry or Hermione than with Frodo or Eowyn. Many of their problems are familiar to most readers. Who hasn't met annoying classmates and mean teachers? The same thing might apply to Twilight which I haven't read so I can't go into the details.
Another aspect of Harry Potter is, that the story contains so many different themes and plotlines that everyone can find something that interests them. There's the children's book approach with the young heros having to safe the world while the adults screw up, but there are also plenty of "adult" themes such as government corruption, inhuman treatment of prisoners and so on.
In the case of Harry Potter, the mode of publishing played an important role as well, I believe. Waiting for the books encouraged people to speculate and made the suspense grow. This probably has helped sales but I think the story could have been much more consistent if the author had written everything together, cross-checked her facts and cut unnecessary bits out. This would also have posed a problem however: The way it was, everyone could hope that their favourite theme would become important for the great ending and had to read all seven books. Some people (like me) wouldn't have bought all the books if they had known earlier which parts would become important for the ending.

Okay, this, in my opinion, are some of the things responsible for the success of these two books. Should we try to do the same to make our books sell well? I don't think so. (With the exception of putting lot's of work into it of course.) The same thing doesn't work that way a second time.
I really can't stand all those rip-off books such as the ones with Elves, Dwarves and Humans fighting Orcs and a Dark Lord. They might sell well enough but not that well because they aren't anything special anymore.
Fantasy offers so many possibilites and I hate how published writers only use so few of them. Really original stuff might never be published, might only attract very few buyers but it might also be the next great thing. If you're writing the right thing at the right time and do so well.
Of course I know that there's nothing really original, the general concepts are always the same and so on, but that doesn't mean everyone has to write about Elves and Orcs who act exactly like Tolkien's Elves and Orcs or some later interpretations of them.

 

[Behelit]

(Okay, maybe not "regardless": all the appropriate publicity you can get.…)

That brings something to mind. I've recognized a growing trend in "bashing" or negatively reviewing a product to generate publicity. A couple of commercials use this marketing strategy though I can't seem to recall the exact products. If you've ever heard of The Room, an indie film so awful (not campy, not of the B movie genre, just awful) it is actually gaining publicity from its negative reputation. The same may also be said of Twilight.

 

[Misusscarlet]

I think what makes a bestseller is that after all you've written, scribbled, scratched out and all the times you've banged your head against the wall trying to get past writer's block. You still want to read your own story, especially after all the times you've had to re-read it for editing purposes. My story isn't finished, but every week I re-read what I've written just because I enjoy what I wrote. Odds are if you want to read it and it excites you, so will other people. Also, I'm sorry, but I can not stand authors that take two years to publish a new book. I felt like I had no life waiting for the last of the Harry Potter books to be published. I spent 7 years of my life waiting for the last book. Then another 4 years just to see the last of the movies.

As for publicity, I would use whatever means you can to get your name and your book out there. Book give-away. Don't just give them away, do a contest for them or go to a bookstore pick out some kid or adult in the fantasy section and give them a free book just to get them reading it.

 

[pskelding]

While agree with most of what has been said in this thread I think many of us overlook a critical factor - perseverance.

Many of the now fantasy greats persevered through writing a few books and building an audience to get to that breakthrough point. Cases in point - Robert Jordan (RIP), GRRM and Brandon Sanderson come to mind. I don't remember Jordan becoming a big name until he had about 5 or 6 of his books out, though I'm sure they sold well enough to warrant continuing them. Sanderson's first novel Elantris is not good IMHO and merely borderline at best (he has said as much on his podcast). GRRM definitely was a name before ASoFaI but by the 2nd and 3rd books he really broke out to mainstream acclaim.

If you look at the up-and-comers who didn't have a big PR push they will probably need to get about 3 to 5 books out before they really become more popular with the genre crowd. People like Col Buchanan, Daniel Abraham and Kevin Hearne just to name a few.

I just don't think most writers or us can crank out a best-seller without some sort of promotional push.

 

[Lord Darkstorm]

For us, I think we have to write a really good story. I've read Name of the Wind, and Wise Man's Fear...and while I HATE Patrick for taking sooooo long between books, the quality is there, and the storytelling is exceptional. I loved the Harry Potter series, not because it was the greatest writing ever, but it was a good story, and, it was fairly original to most of what I have read. The fact she managed to capture two audiences, both ya and adult is due to the choices she made in writing it. Overall she tells a good story. Which is one of the reasons I so detest gimmickry in writing to try and gain a larger audience. Popular books that sell in large numbers are usually not in some obscure pov or setting some new trend in writing style, just plain old good story telling.

I still believe there is a bit of luck involved, but I read Harry Potter because a friend recommended it. No add would have convinced me to buy it, but someone I trust could. The same thing happened with Name of the Wind (which I do highly recommend), and there are quite a few books that I would have never picked up unless someone I knew told me to read it. So, I think popularity comes by word of mouth, or facebook, twitter, or whatever other ways people do it these days. The fact remains that if you want to be the next success, you have to tell a really good story.

 

[mythique890]

If your goal is making money, I think we could put a little more stock in examining the trends. The most popular fantasy books (specifically: Harry Potter, Twilight, The Mortal Instruments, etc) have several factors of the following factors in common (keep in mind, I'm not vouching for their quality):

1) They're about attractive teenagers.
2) They take place in "this" world.
3) They begin with a "normal" protagonist.
4) Romance between said attractive teenagers.
5) The Ultimate Villain is an adult.
6) At some point, against the advice of a trusted adult figure, they have Grand Adventures and almost die.
7) Happy ending.


There are more, but really, I think the reason these things sell well is because the people who buy them can open them up and say, "Ooo! This person started out normal, but ended up special! This could happen to me!"

I think that last part is the most important. No, none of us really believe in these worlds, but don't we wish so hard that they were real? That sells. It totally sells.

 

[Misusscarlet]

I was going more towards set in a different world if you would want a book to sell. Because of the horrid economy and all the corrupt evil politicians people want to escape go somewhere else and be a hero. I know everyday I want to escape the bad news in the newspaper, internet, TV or just in general what people say in passing. I used to do journalism and my first interview was the employees at my local library. I was told by the manager of the library that a lot of people have been checking out fantasy/adventure that's placed in another world, usually young adults, in part because of the economy.

 

[CicadaGrrl]

Currently, I think best sellers are books that anyone of different levels of reading interest can read. Twilight and Hunger Games are at the same writing standard, along with those books by Cassandra Clare which are also in all the lists.

People these days want distraction and escapism. People I know who 'don't' read, all adore Twilight, Hunger Games, Cassandra Clare... and can't seem to read or be interested in reading anything that's - in the nicest way possible - written with a higher level of depth.

So while I don't think it's the answer to the secret, I think it's what's currently popular. VERY easy to read books, that appeal to the masses, but... not... people who read like we do. It comes down to what you want. To be incredibly popular and make loads of money, or be proud of what you've written whilst appealing to only a smaller part of the market, like Abercrombie and Rothfuss.

...Yes, that was rather narky of me, I apologise. I've read the Twilight books, and Cassandra Clare, and try as I may I couldn't get through a few pages of Hunger Games without wanting to hit my head around a few times and return to the safety of the true Battle Royale. Feel free to disagree with me in every way, the above are just my humble - very humble - opinions.

Snark away. I'll snark with you. Right now, we are in the midst of the worst depression since the Great. In the Great Depression, sugar sweet happy media was what it was all about. I mean, Shirley Temple? Creepy. Timing is a huge factor.

I don't think being different has anything to do with it. If one Rowling or Martin is out there writing and getting the publicity, ten Rowlings and Martins are toiling in silence, and always will be. Even if they are better writers. I'd say the Best Sellers actually promote sameness.

Then again, I am different no matter how I do or don't try to be. So maybe you shouldn't listen to me, though I have no illusions of being a Best Seller.