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We attended a talk on
“Tricks on How to Make a Living as an Author,” by David Farland. He gave great advice like write stories that
win awards and become bestsellers. Okay
maybe he had a few other suggestions too, but those were two of them. If only it was that
easy. :)
But Farland did give his personal insights on what
makes a bestselling novel that I thought I’d share. He said he looked at a list of the bestselling
novels of all time and identified four commonalities.
1. Immersive, interesting setting. Most of the bestselling novels make the
reader feel transported to another place and/or time. For me this could be overdone and come off as
a little self-indulgent like in the series The Wheel of Time (someday I’ll blog
about this).
2. Wide audience appeal . A lot of bestsellers have a story line that
appeals to a lot of people with a diverse cast, strong male and female leads with
old and young characters. A little
ethnic diversity doesn’t hurt either if done respectfully.
However, Farland also recognized that
sometimes it is wise to target a specific audience especially if you are an
avid reader of that genre or subgenre.
3. Highly emotional. Most of the bestselling novels evoked a
strong emotional response from readers.
Personally, I believe that stories tap into that emotional side of us,
and emotional payoff is essential to a great story.
4. Lengthy. A
lot of bestsellers are very long, longer than publishers and agents
recommend. Most likely because it takes
a lot of pages to create a strong story with a detailed, realistic setting.
So that is what makes a bestseller according to David
Farland (I'd add romance or a romantic subplot to his list). I have to say that a lot of
blockbuster novels and movies that I love fit these points: Harry Potter, Les Miserables (threw that in
for you Melanie), Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, etc, so there may be something
to it. Although a lot of stories even those that aren’t
best sellers also fit these four criteria.
I wish I knew the list of books he based this analysis on,
but I did a little googling and I found some lists for the bestselling books
of all time here
and here. And because I’m an avid fantasy reader, here’s
the list for the bestselling sci-fi and fantasy writers. Check them out, and see if David Farland is onto something.
So what do you think?
Is David Farland right? What do you think are the keys to producing a bestselling novel?
~MaryAnn
