originally posted February 10, 2007
May 2021: revised text is noted
Brian Hill and Dee Power wanted to know what makes a book successful. So they researched the concept and published their answers in The Making of a Bestseller: Success Stories From Authors and the Editors, Agents and Booksellers Behind Them. They talked with more than one-hundred editors and agents to find out, in brief, that the most important factors in a book’s success are (in order):
- the author’s previous success
- the quality of writing
- the timeliness of the topic
- the author’s fan base
- word of mouth advertising from readers
- efforts of the author to promote the book
- publicity
- reviews
- paid advertising
Hill and Power have also released a few helpful answers to some very interesting questions on their website, BrianHillAndDeePower.com. The questions and answers—most of them would be quite difficult to find answers for—are primarily about query letters and the query process, but frequently touch on other topics.
UPDATE: With a publication date of 2005, you might assume this work has passed its usefulness and that its suggestions would be outdated; however, while you’ll need to use common sense with some information that has changed, the book still contains valuable insights for authors. Have doubts? Read a synopsis and review at GoodReads or look over the book’s table of contents. You can also “look inside” at the Amazon.com link from the title, above.
image information: The featured image at top appears on the dust jacket for this title; the book cover is used via Amazon.com.
