Salon.com > Bestsellers

Recipe for a bestselling book

Tue, 01 May 2012 21:00:00 +0000

Remember the time you picked up a copy of that big bestseller and tore through the book in a couple of days, marveling at the bad writing, ridiculous plot twists and paper-thin characters? "Is drivel all it takes to sell a gazillion copies and retire to a sleekly spacious modern house in the woods?" you probably asked yourself. "I could crank out better crap than this! How hard can it be?"

The better question is: How easy? For if smart people who have spent their entire careers calculating how to write or publish bestsellers find it impossible to produce a surefire winner -- and they do -- chances are that you and the many, many, many other people who have had the thoughts described above are underestimating the task. Presumably aspiring authors will be the most avid readers of James Hall's new book, "Hit Lit: Cracking the Code of the 20th Century's Biggest Bestsellers," and they may well learn from it. But does this title, the latest attempt to nail down the essential qualities of extremely popular books, actually wrap its fingers around the mystery?

“Go the F**k to Sleep” and Tracy Morgan’s comedy battle

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:50:00 +0000

What's more absurdly hilarious than an ersatz bedtime story called "Go the F**k to Sleep"? Funnier even than Werner Herzog or Samuel L. Jackson reading it? Answer: The uproariously hyperbolic opinion piece that ran Monday on CNN – CNN! -- by author Karen Spears Zacharias, who claims, "The violent language of 'Go the F*** to Sleep' is not the least bit funny, when one considers how many neglected children fall asleep each night praying for a parent who'd care enough to hold them, nurture them and read to them." Wah wah waaaaaaah.

Moby Awards honor best, worst book trailers of 2011

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 19:45:00 +0000

On the surface, book trailers seem like a fairly ridiculous concept: trying to market literature to people who would rather wait until the movie version comes out. Most of the time, publishing houses create trailers that are visually arresting or entertaining, but have nothing whatsoever to do with the book they're trying to sell. That's where the Moby Awards come in.

Celebrating the best and the worst of book trailers with a statuette of a golden sperm whale, last night's Second Annual Moby Awards were held at the Powerhouse Arena in Brooklyn. With categories like "Most Celebtastic Performance," "Best Small House Press Trailer" and "What Are We Doing to Our Children? (good or bad, you decide)," the ceremony is more tongue-in-cheek McSweeney's party than Paris Review gala.

According to Salon's senior book writer and Moby Awards judge Laura Miller, the best book trailer of the year didn't even take home a prize, though it was nominated in the category for best "Book Trailer as Stand Alone Art Object":

Jonathan Franzen’s “Freedom”: Brilliant portrait of our times

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:01:00 +0000

Now that we know that the world is filled with opinionated, neurotic busybodies and compromised idealists just like us, our contempt springs to the surface so easily. We resent recognizing bits of ourselves in so many others, seeing how much more effectively (and photogenically!) these people put their ideals into action, through their daily yoga classes and lucrative yet admirable jobs as environmental lawyers, through the whimsical crafts and organic layer cakes they make with their creative, adorable children, through the two-week vacations they take in Maui or the Wakefield dressers they refinish for junior's bedroom. Instead of bringing us together, the Internet shows us that we not only aren't remotely unique, but everyone else out there is pursuing the same lifelong dreams and embracing the same hobbies with far more focus, style and energy than we could ever hope to muster.

“Eat, Pray, Love”: A phenomenon goes bust

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:20:00 +0000

The enormous success of Elizabeth Gilbert's travel memoir "Eat, Pray, Love" is one of those paradoxes that pretty much define modern life. There is nothing affluent Westerners of the information-economy class like better than being told that our lives lack soulfulness, sensuality and a sense of purpose -- except, perhaps, for heaping derision on those who bring us this news. Every move in this dance is so well rehearsed that none of it can escape cliché: not the original complaint about our shallowness and materialism, not the presumptive moral high ground and false modesty of the evangelist-observer, not the exaggerated, Bill O'Reilly-style scorn of those who feel their iPhoned and Twitterized lifestyle is under attack.

As almost everyone reading this will already know, "Eat, Pray, Love" is the autobiographical and presumably truthful story of a woman who "pulls a geographic" (as some 12-steppers say) on an epic scale, fleeing first her troubled marriage and then her relationship with a hot, younger boyfriend for a year-long voyage of self-discovery to Italy, India and Bali. Gilbert is a sharp and amusing prose stylist and an openhearted critic of her own foibles and failings. She's aware that her personal and literary odyssey contains potential contradictions: The tale of a well-connected New York writer traveling the globe on somebody else's dime and sampling an array of seemingly disconnected experiences might strike many people as a symptom of our cultural dislocation and commodity fetishism, not a cure.

“The Girl Who Played With Fire”: Out of the past

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:20:00 +0000

Ordinarily, a film that was made in Sweden and is being released in the United States by a tiny indie distributor would barely merit a footnote on the overcrowded summer movie calendar. But "The Girl Who Played With Fire," the second film in director Daniel Alfredson and screenwriter Jonas Frykberg's Millennium trilogy (adapted, of course, from Stieg Larsson's best-selling thrillers), is a peculiar exception. Like its predecessor, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," this is likely to be one of 2010's top-grossing foreign-language films -- and that's without reaching anywhere near the total audience of Larsson's novels.

As anyone who pays attention to Hollywood gossip knows, an English-language adaptation of the Larsson trilogy is purportedly in the works, with David Fincher directing and Daniel Craig playing crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist. Carey Mulligan of "An Education" may play pint-size feminist avenger Lisbeth Salander -- not a great choice, if you ask me -- and then again she may not. (Kristen Stewart, who would be terrific, says she definitely, maybe, sort of isn't interested.) But that project has development-hell problems that go well beyond casting.

“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”: Older guy, hot babe (feminist version)

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:50:00 +0000

I suppose the original title of the late Swedish journalist Stieg Larsson's international bestseller, and of the new film adaptation from Danish director Niels Arden Oplev, lacks both the mysterious panache and the commercial potential of the better-known English title, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." In Swedish, both the book and movie are called "Men Who Hate Women" -- a dramatic shift in focus that goes straight at the central conundrum of this international publishing (and now cinematic) phenomenon.

I should say up front that I haven't read Larsson's novel, which by some critical standards might disqualify me from reviewing the movie. On the other hand, that's likely to be the position of most viewers; even when you're talking about a foreign-language movie and a bestseller in translation, the audience for movies is many times larger than the readership for books. And to drag out the hoariest cliché regarding novel-into-film adaptations, the movie's always got to stand on its own feet. (For what it's worth, my colleague Laura Miller likes Oplev's movie better than the book. "It's an extremely faithful adaptation that focuses on the central story and characters and loses a lot of extraneous material," she tells me.)

Wall Street Journal: This week’s top books

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:25:00 +0000

FICTION

1. "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett (Putnam Adult/Amy Einhorn)

2. "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown (Doubleday)

3. "Witch & Wizard" by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet (Little, Brown)

4. "Breaking Dawn" by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

5. "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days" by Jeff Kinney (Amulet Books)

6. "I, Alex Cross" by James Patterson (Little, Brown)

7. "Deeper Than the Dead" by Tami Hoag (Dutton Books)

8. "Noah's Compass" by Anne Tyler (Knopf)

9. "U is for Undertow" by Sue Grafton (Putnam Adult)

10. "Pirate Latitudes" by Michael Crichton (Harper)

11. "Impact" by Douglas Preston (Forge)

12. "Ranger's Apprentice: Erak's Ranson" by John Flanagan (Philomel)

13. "The Honor of Spies" by W.E.B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth IV (Putnam Adult)

14. "Sizzle" by Julie Garwood (Ballantine Books)

15. "The Last Song" by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central Publishing)

NONFICTION

1. "Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage" by Elizabeth Gilbert (Viking)

2. "Going Rogue: An American Life" by Sarah Palin (HarperCollins)

3. "Have a Little Faith: A True Story" by Mitch Albom (Hyperion)

Publisher’s Weekly: Top books (January 14)

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:23:00 +0000

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett (Putnam Adult/Amy Einhorn)

2. "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown (Doubleday)

3. "Noah's Compass" by Anne Tyler (Knopf)

4. "I, Alex Cross" by James Patterson (Little, Brown)

5. "Impact" by Douglas Preston (Forge)

6. "The Last Song" by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central Publishing)

7. "Deeper Than the Dead" by Tami Hoag (Dutton Adult)

8. "The Honor of Spies" by W.E.B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth IV (Putnam Adult)

9. "Sizzle" by Julie Garwood (Ballantine Books)

10. "Under the Dome" by Stephen King (Scribner)

11. "Pirate Latitudes" by Michael Crichton (Harper)

12. "U is for Undertow" by Sue Grafton (Putnam Adult)

13. "Altar of Eden" by James Rollins (William Morrow)

14. "The Girl Who Played With Fire" by Stieg Larsson (Knopf)

15. "I, Sniper: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel" by Stephen Hunter (Simon & Schuster)

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. "Committed" by Elizabeth Gilbert (Viking)

2. "Have a Little Faith: A True Story" by Mitch Albom (Hyperion)

3. "Going Rogue: An American Life" by Sarah Palin (HarperCollins)

4. "SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (William Morrow)

Wall Street Journal: Top books (January 7)

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:54:00 +0000

FICTION

1. "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown (Doubleday)

2. "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days" by Jeff Kinney (Amulet Books)

3. "I, Alex Cross" by James Patterson (Little, Brown)

4. "Witch & Wizard" by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet (Little, Brown)

5. "Under the Dome" by Stephen King (Scribner)

6. "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett (Putnam Adult/Amy Einhorn)

7. "U is for Underflow" by Sue Grafton (Putnam Adult)

8. "Pirate Latitudes" by Michael Crichton (Harper)

9. "Ford County: Stories" by John Grisham (Doubleday)

10. "The Last Song" by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central Publishing)

11. "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw" by Jeff Kinney (Amulet Books)

12. "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" by Jeff Kinney (Amulet Books)

13. "Breaking Dawn" by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

14. "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules" by Jeff Kinney (Amulet Books)

15. "Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas" by Jane O'Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser (HarperCollins)

NONFICTION

1. "Going Rogue: An American Life" by Sarah Palin (HarperCollins)

2. "Have a Little Faith: A True Story" by Mitch Albom (Hyperion)

USA Today: Top books (January 7)

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:36:00 +0000

Key: F-Fiction; NF-Nonfiction; H-Hardcover; P-Paperback

1. "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold (Little, Brown) (F-P)

2. "Eclipse" by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) (F-H)

3. "Dear John" by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central Publishing) (F-P)

4. "Breaking Dawn" by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) (F-H)

5. "New Moon" by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) (F-P)

6. "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown (Doubleday) (F-H)

7. "I, Alex Cross" by James Patterson (Little Brown) (F-H)

8. "Street Game" by Christine Feehan (Jove) (F-P)

9. "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) (F-P)

10. "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett (Putnam Adult/Amy Einhorn) (F-H)

11. "Vanishing Act" by Fern Michaels (Zebra) (F-P)

12. "The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game" by Michael Lewis (W.W. Norton & Company) (NF-P)

13. "Witch & Wizard" by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet (Little, Brown) (F-H)

14. "Sizzle" by Julie Garwood (Ballantine Books) (F-H)

15. "The Shack" by William P. Young (Windblown Media) (F-P)

16. "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days" by Jeff Kinney (Amulet Books) (F-H)

17. "Plum Spooky" Janet Evanovich (St. Martin's Paperbacks) (F-P)

Publishers Weekly: Top books (January 7)

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:35:00 +0000

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown (Doubleday)

2. "I, Alex Cross" by James Patterson (Little, Brown)

3. "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett (Putnam Adult/Amy Einhorn)

4. "Sizzle" by Julie Garwood (Ballantine Books)

5. "Fired Up" by Jayne Ann Krentz (Putnam Adult)

6. "The Last Song" by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central Publishing)

7. "The Honor of Spies" by W.E.B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth IV (Putnam Adult)

8. "Deeper Than the Dead" by Tami Hoag (Dutton Adult)

9. "Under the Dome" by Stephen King (Scribner)

10. "Altar of Eden" by James Rollins (William Morrow)

11. "Pirate Latitudes" by Michael Crichton (Harper)

12. "U is for Underflow" by Sue Grafton (Putnam Adult)

13. "Ford County: Stories" by John Grisham (Doubleday)

14. "The Girl Who Played With Fire" by Stieg Larsson (Knopf)

15. "I, Sniper: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel" by Stephen Hunter (Simon & Schuster)

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. "Have a Little Faith: A True Story" by Mitch Albom (Hyperion)

2. "Going Rogue: An American Life" by Sarah Palin (HarperCollins)

3. "What the Dog Saw" by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown)