Is it possible to predict whether a book will sell well? Former publisher Jodie Archer and Matthew L Jockers, of Stanford University’s Literary Lab, built an algorithm to find outYour program can identify, from scanning 20,000 books, ones which made the New York Times bestseller lists with 80% accuracy, and one of your key discoveries was that the topics covered in a novel – marriage, work, technology – are more important than its genre in terms of predicting its success. Why?JA: If you look at a bestseller list, you might think it was very diverse in genre – a Stephen King alongside a Jojo Moyes. But certain topics were strong indicators of a bestseller, regardless of genre. “Human closeness” came out on top. This doesn’t mean romance – it could be talking with someone you are intimate with or shopping with a parent. It may be to do with pacing – when Dan Brown knows he has to slow his pace down a little bit and let the characters reflect before a big chase scene in the Vatican, his characters talk it out. John Grisham does it perfectly because in all the legal machinations and suspense and back stabbing, there are always scenes where a lawyer gets a bottle of red wine and a Chinese takeaway and sits on the couch with his female counterpart and they chew the cud for a bit. It is almost the opposite of a formulaic how-to; make a boy meet a girl, make them fall out. Related: Bestselling books 2015: Fifty Shades still on top Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2016-09-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
David Baldacci's latest installment in the John Puller series, 'No Man's Land,' reaches the peak of the iBooks bestseller list this week, with John Grisham's 'The Whistler' dropping to #2. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-11-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Grisham's latest, 'The Whistler,' stays at #1 on the iBooks bestseller list this week, followed by Michael Connelly's 'The Wrong Side of Goodbye.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-11-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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John Grisham's 'The Whistler' has pushed Paula Hawkins's 'The Girl on the Train' from its longstanding perch at the top of the iBooks bestseller list. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-11-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fifty Shades of Grey author E L James has released an excerpt of a new book that, like Grey (Arrow), takes on another of her novels from billionaire Christian Grey's perspective. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-09-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Is it possible to predict whether a book will sell well? Former publisher Jodie Archer and Matthew L Jockers, of Stanford University’s Literary Lab, built an algorithm to find outYour program can identify, from scanning 20,000 books, ones which made the New York Times bestseller lists with 80%... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-09-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James has been voted the "most embarrassing book in the world", according to Mumsnet users. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Heralded lawyer-turned-bestselling-author John Grisham is hard at work on his October novel, "The Whistler" (Doubleday), a thriller about a dangerous investigation into high levels of judicial corruption. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-05-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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German media group reiterates plan to increase stake to 70-75% as full-year core profits climb 4.7%Bertelsmann has reported a 4.7% rise in full-year core profit and reiterated its plan to raise its stake in Penguin Random House, the book publisher which helped to drive the earnings increase. The... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-03-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hodder & Stoughton is to publish The Whistler, the new novel from John Grisham, in October. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Waterhouse Press, which published the bestselling 12-book erotica series that 'USA Today' just touted as the next Fifty Shades of Grey, is taking a numbers-driven approach to cracking the bestseller list. So far, it seems to be working. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-01-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fifty Shades of Grey author E L James is helping to raise funds for a flood-hit cricket club, that has "literally disappeared under the same deluge" as flooded bookshop Book Case, in Hebden Bridge. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-01-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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E L James' Fifty Shades of Grey series has claimed five spots on Apple's iBooks 2015 best-selling fiction chart while Jeffrey Archer has claimed four spots and Lee Child has two. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-12-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Troublemaker' by Leah Remini had a short-lived reign at #1; the book fell to #3 and was replaced at the top by John Grisham's 'Rogue Lawyer.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-11-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'Rogue Lawyer' by John Grisham took the top spot once again on the iBooks bestsellers chart, and just released on October 27, Patricia Cornwell’s 'Depraved Heart' came in at #4. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Nicholas Sparks' 'See Me' fell to #3 in its second week out; losing the top spot to John Grisham's 'Rogue Lawyer.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-10-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A woman who founded the publishing firm which initially released Fifty Shades of Grey has been ordered by a US judge to set aside $10.7m (£6.9m) for her former partner after being found guilty of defrauding her out of royalties for the book. Australian Amanda Hayward and Jennifer Pedroza were... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train (Transworld) is Amazon.co.uk’s biggest selling ebook of 2015 so far, the retailer has revealed. The list of top 20 ebooks of the year is dominated by female authors, with E L James’ Fifty Shades of Grey companion novel, Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as told by... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-08-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The latest installment in E.L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey series, Grey, hit #1 in France, Italy, and Spain last month. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-08-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Harper Lee’s long-lost novel has sold over 200,000 copies in the UK over the past weekEL James’ reign at the top of the UK book charts for the last month with her erotic bestseller Grey has been ended by a novel written in the 1950s and abandoned in a box for decades: Harper Lee’s Go Set a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-07-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fifty Shades of Grey author E L James has written a new romance, and is halfway through writing a second, she revealed in a Twitter chat with UK fans. The writer took part in the online gathering yesterday (29th June), but the hashtag for the chat #AskELJames was hijacked by people criticising... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-07-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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