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 ]
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The newest 'Star Wars' novel, 'Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse,' holds the No. 8 slot on the New York Times bestseller list. Success has become the norm for the books. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-03-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pan Macmillan has snapped up UK and Commonwealth rights to Amazon’s self-publishing... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-02-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The new #1 fiction title in January was from bestselling author Jussi Adler-Olsen, who landed in the top spot with The Alphabet House. Adler-Olsen’s most recent U.S. title, The Keeper of Lost Causes, was released last August by Dutton and received a PW starred review. Dutton will publish... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-02-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse (Egmont) was once again the bestselling book in the UK last... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Germany’s top fiction title at the end of December, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out His Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson climbed up from #5, supplanting previous chart-topper Inheritance (Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance was also #2 in Spain). Jonasson’s novel has sold more... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Michael Morpurgo's War Horse (Egmont) was comfortably the bestselling book in the UK last... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-01-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new translation of the Bible has taken the top spot in Norway's bestseller list, selling 75... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-12-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A few days after Amazon announced that the Steve Jobs biography was its top-selling book of 2011 (combined print and ebook sales), the book debuted on bestseller charts around the world, including the three countries highlighted this month. Steve Jobs was #3 in France and the Netherlands, and... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The top three fiction titles in Germany were all debuts in October, led by In Times of Fading Light, which recently won the 2011 German Book Prize and is set for publication in the U.S. by Graywolf Press in fall 2013. Umberto Ecos newest book, The Prague Cemetery, which debuted at #3, is newly... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-11-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Fri, 04/11/2011 - 15:11 Constable & Robinson is getting into the Dickens bicentennial spirit, publishing a novel re-examining the events of Bleak House. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Stone Publication Date: Wed, 02/11/2011 - 08:27 Walter Isaacsons biography of the late Steve Jobs has become one of the fastest-selling hardback non-fiction books since records began. Brought forward from its original publication date of 24th November following the Apple... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With Knopf set to release Haruki Murakamis 1Q84 this week in the U.S., the latest novel from the award-winning Japanese author was an instant bestseller in Japan and debuted at #3 in France in September. Topping the French fiction chart last month was The Passenger, the most recent thriller... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-10-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 07/09/2011 - 08:15 Pan Macmillan has acquired a title which has sold, according to the publisher, more than a quarter of a million copies in eight weeks in France and went to number one in the bestseller charts. Editorial director Liz Gough... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-09-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperPress has signed a book examining the role of the intelligence service during the end of the British Empire. Editorial director Martin Redfern bought UK and Commonwealth (excluding Canada) rights at auction to Empire of Secrets by Calder Walton from Jon Elek at A P Watt. The book will be... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tyrese Gibson's bestselling self-help memoir How to Get Out of Your Own Way (Grand Central) may be his first book, but thanks to more than 1.8 million Twitter followers (@Tyrese), the author is an old hand at connecting with fans through social media. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-07-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Fri, 08/07/2011 - 08:27 HarperCollins has bought four books by Louise Voss and Mark Edwards, whose self-published novels have been Amazon bestsellers, in a six-figure, pre-empt deal. Commissioning editor Kate Bradley bought world rights from agent Sam... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Stone Publication Date: Tue, 28/06/2011 - 15:11 Dawn Frenchs A Tiny Bit Marvellous (Penguin), the bestselling hardback début novel of 2010, was the bestselling book in the UK last week, while Lynda La Plante, writing since 1983, scores her first ever Bookseller number one.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Thu, 23/06/2011 - 05:28 Aurum Press has bought a biography about the service that monitored and intercepted the German military's radio traffic during the Second World War. Publisher Graham Coster bought world English language rights to The Secret Listeners by Sinclair McKay... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Barbara Casassus Publication Date: Thu, 26/05/2011 - 13:45 More than a third of bestsellers are available for legal downloads in France, about twice the proportion reported a year ago, according to Motif, the observatory of books and writing in the Ile-de-France region that... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Last week, Apple went to Washington, D.C., to answer questions from U.S. lawmakers about consumer privacy in the mobile marketplace. The visit was triggered by the discovery that Apples iPads and iPhones tracked and kept users locations for up to a year, creating a step-by-step picture of... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2011-05-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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