5 years of New York Times No.1 best sellers

[Lex E. Darion]

My wife has read a few Nora Roberts and feels they are each basically the same story with slight changes. By the formula kind of reads, but she has sold a huge amount of books so its working.

I wonder why these formulaic novels work? James Patterson is the same too (so I believe). It obviously speaks to the masses in some way. Perhaps they enjoy the stability and consistency that these type of books produce; they know what's going to happen so there's no uncertainty? It must be boring to write these though - although maybe the $$$ at the end make up for that?!

 

[ratsy]

Well, I read somewhere that Nora has written over 150 books (didnt google it now so I could be wrong) so she must make it as easy as possible. And she sells a lot doing it that way.

 

[Brian G Turner]

It may be better for me to look at the USA bestseller lists:
Book Reviews and Best Selling Lists - USATODAY.com

as the New York Times is alleged to edit it's own list to favour certain publishers:
This National Best Seller List Ignored 20k Book Sales

However, I suspect that's because the NYT doesn't list boxed sets or similar bundles, as was the case in this instance, and instead only individual books.

Still, it does mean that the USA Today list arguably gives a more realistic snapshot of book sales, inclusive of ebook bundles.

 

[nixie]

/I've 18 of the authors

 

[Brian G Turner]

I either didn't realise - or simply forgot - that Amazon.com has a tab under the books section specifically for NYT bestsellers:
Amazon.com: The New York Times Best Sellers: Books