How can I learn to love bestsellers?

[Anonymous]

I think also if you are an author you have to really think about the marketing in ways that authors in the past haven't.

Book ideas become ssensations on TikTok and then get turned into books that people who are already fans will buy.

Or people who build up big social media followings are able to sell books regardless of the plots. Build up your following in your speciality. Build a network of fellow writers who will help promote your book. push your publisher to allow giveaways or pay for more marketing, but be prepared to do a lot of marketing yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Twilight was a bestseller. It's ok not to like them.

It's really not.

Full disclosure: I'm a writer who was recently dropped by her agent because three of my books just didn't sell. In her words, "They're lovely and well-written, but publishers are looking for stories with wider appeal."

For the past year, I've been on a hunt to figure out what makes the stories with wide appeal so successful - but because I don't personally enjoy, it's a struggle. I would like to find out what I'm missing.

If you have actually published three books, you should be savvy enough to understand what makes books sell. Even if yours didn’t.You should understand how people like a plot that drives. You should understand what kind of characters have mass appeal. None of this should be news to you, or something that you need to study up on by going through the New York Times bestseller list.

I haven't been published - my agent dropped me because she couldn't sell my books. And yes, I know how to write. What I do not understand is what makes readers love bestsellers so much, because I do not. I suppose it's hard to understand why research is necessary, but it is.

[Anonymous]

You don't need to learn to love best sellers.

You need to learn to be okay with not being able to write a best seller. Those are different things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to learn to love best sellers.

You need to learn to be okay with not being able to write a best seller. Those are different things.

Ooof. Harsh truths.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to learn to love best sellers.

You need to learn to be okay with not being able to write a best seller. Those are different things.

Ooof. Harsh truths.

Writing a best seller is insanely difficult. It's like when the most talented person you know goes to NYC, and ends up a back up dancer (not ever getting to perform more than a show or two).

[Anonymous]

Different things are going to snag different people. At the airport bookstore, looking for an easy read, anything, anything that mentions WW1 or WW2 or set in that era is instantly put back. Yawn. I just don't want to read that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to learn to love best sellers.

You need to learn to be okay with not being able to write a best seller. Those are different things.

Ooof. Harsh truths.

Writing a best seller is insanely difficult. It's like when the most talented person you know goes to NYC, and ends up a back up dancer (not ever getting to perform more than a show or two).

I think that I find frustrating is that people praise my writing - including the publishers who say no. But I'm tired of hearing "it just doesn't have the marketability we're looking for now." And since I personally don't love bestsellers, I know there's something I'm just not meshing with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Twilight was a bestseller. It's ok not to like them.

It's really not.

Full disclosure: I'm a writer who was recently dropped by her agent because three of my books just didn't sell. In her words, "They're lovely and well-written, but publishers are looking for stories with wider appeal."

For the past year, I've been on a hunt to figure out what makes the stories with wide appeal so successful - but because I don't personally enjoy, it's a struggle. I would like to find out what I'm missing.

If you have actually published three books, you should be savvy enough to understand what makes books sell. Even if yours didn’t.You should understand how people like a plot that drives. You should understand what kind of characters have mass appeal. None of this should be news to you, or something that you need to study up on by going through the New York Times bestseller list.

I haven't been published - my agent dropped me because she couldn't sell my books. And yes, I know how to write. What I do not understand is what makes readers love bestsellers so much, because I do not. I suppose it's hard to understand why research is necessary, but it is.

Can you give us an example of a best seller that you didn’t understand why it was a best seller?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Twilight was a bestseller. It's ok not to like them.

It's really not.

Full disclosure: I'm a writer who was recently dropped by her agent because three of my books just didn't sell. In her words, "They're lovely and well-written, but publishers are looking for stories with wider appeal."

For the past year, I've been on a hunt to figure out what makes the stories with wide appeal so successful - but because I don't personally enjoy, it's a struggle. I would like to find out what I'm missing.

Oh I see, you should have mentioned that.

Frankly, the majority of people are stupider than you think, and younger generations have a quail's attention span because of social media. Our recent election proves that. So what you want to do is create a powerful hook right off the bat, because everyone is used to a Tik Tok span of attention-grabbing. Something that smacks the reader in the face. Make your stories and characters a little more obvious, with plots that hit more directly at the dopamine: romance, thrills, whatever you're writing about, has to be more easily and rapidly felt by the reader. If you need to dumb down your writing style to do this, go right ahead. If the reader can guess who the villain is, or which beau the heroine will finally choose, before the denouement, they will think "Oh I'm so smart" instead of thinking "this plot was too obvious".

Sorry, but this is how it is.

I sadly agree with all of this.

[Anonymous]

What are you writing?

I read a ton. I really don't care for a lot of of bestsellers. Those books hit that list because Oprah/Jenna put them on some book club list. So many of them are poorly written and have no plot. Give me a solid novel with a well developed plot and some gorgeous sentences and I am hooked. (Just devoured Call Your Daughter Home in about two days. Wow.) I gravitate toward historical fiction that is well researched and authentic.

Sometimes it just takes one good book and an author is off and running. It doesn't mean the subsequent books are as good as the first, it just means that the author can get them published.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Different things are going to snag different people. At the airport bookstore, looking for an easy read, anything, anything that mentions WW1 or WW2 or set in that era is instantly put back. Yawn. I just don't want to read that.

Leave the WW2 books for me!!!!

Seriously, there's something for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to learn to love best sellers.

You need to learn to be okay with not being able to write a best seller. Those are different things.

Ooof. Harsh truths.

Writing a best seller is insanely difficult. It's like when the most talented person you know goes to NYC, and ends up a back up dancer (not ever getting to perform more than a show or two).

I think that I find frustrating is that people praise my writing - including the publishers who say no. But I'm tired of hearing "it just doesn't have the marketability we're looking for now." And since I personally don't love bestsellers, I know there's something I'm just not meshing with.

Think about how books and tv shows/movies are pitched - they’re often a slightly novel twist on something tried and true. Pride and Prejudice but with zombies! With a South Asian family! Or this new show is a cross between Friends and Seinfeld!

[Anonymous]

I still can’t tell what you mean by “bestseller.” There’s a whole wide world out there, from Oprah-approved books to lit fic darlings to Pulitzer Prize winners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't need to learn to love best sellers.

You need to learn to be okay with not being able to write a best seller. Those are different things.

+1. Sorry, OP.

[Anonymous]

You don’t need to learn to love best sellers to read them and understand what they have that your books don’t. Probably more excitement - the PP who mentioned a tik tok attention span is right on the money. I don’t want to read pages of flowery prose, I want stuff to happen!

If you feel like your books really are great, keep trying to get them in the hands of people who will love them! I have read a lot of self published books, many of which became traditionally published, and I found them thru Instagram influencers. There and tons and tons of bookstagram people, and when I find one whose reviews I agree with, I buy books they love. From Amazon, because I only read paper books, so I guess there’s a start-up cost to that. But some are only on Kindle Unlimited. Send out a ton of ARCs and if the books are actually good, people will buy them!

Give an example of a book in your genre that is a best seller that you don’t like.