Is there a Formula for Writing a Guaranteed Bestselling Book?

Cracking the Bestseller Code... maybe

Photo by Dan Cristian Pădureț on Unsplash

Hello, lovelies!

Have you ever wondered if there’s a formula for writing a hit book?

As a reader, do you see certain themes recur over and over in the novels you read?

As a writer, do you wonder if you could tap into a James Patterson-like storyboard and churn out your own bestsellers?

Well, in 2017, a pair of researchers wrote a software program to try to figure that out. They analyzed some of the biggest American¹ bestsellers in an attempt to crack the code on writing one.

Then they wrote a book about it—called, of course, The Bestseller Code.

I, like many writers, devoured this book, because it’s notoriously difficult to predict what the market will like. And as a reader, I realized that indeed, many of the bestselling books had these “ingredients” in them.

(If you’re curious, I’ve given you some of the notes that I took from The Bestseller Code - scroll down).

Not So Fast, Though

But it’s not as easy as following a formula. Otherwise, all writers would be doing it, and all books would be the same (or very similar).

1. If you try to manufacture a bestseller by cramming in all the stuff from The Bestseller Code, it’s going to read as if that’s exactly what you did. Yes, publishing is partly a commercial enterprise, but writing is also an art. If you veer too cynically toward constructing what you think will be a bestseller, it will likely feel mechanical.

(Are there exceptions, hugely popular books with terrible prose and/or no character development? Of course. But for the most part, readers fall in love with stories because they connect with a main character or the plot is un-put-downable.)

2. Luck is a big part of this industry. Let’s say you write the most perfect lacrosse love story, but the market decides to go bonkers for hockey romance—and only hockey—so your book doesn’t blow up like it probably should. That’s hard to accept… but it’s the life of an artist. However, keep writing, because luck might strike you next time! (Also, your loyal readers will adore your lacrosse love story and be thrilled that you wrote it).

“Everything is random in publishing,” Penguin Random House CEO Markus Dohle told the court during his testimony. “Success is random. Bestsellers are random. That is why we are the Random House!”

Why bother writing if I can’t guarantee success?

Like any creative pursuit, writing is not an easy path, but most of us choose it because we love it. I used to be an attorney (which I hated), but when I re-discovered writing, I almost cried—I had never felt so alive, so excited to wake up every day to go to work, so madly in love with my occupation.

I write because I love to tell stories and share them with readers.

I write because I want to bring more hope and love and joy to the world, and even if just one person reads my book, I’ve brightened a life and made a small difference.

I don’t write for status or to become famous or to get rich. (Lawyers are paid much better—and more regularly—than writers!) I want to write the best books possible, whether they become bestsellers or not.

Yeah, yeah, but show us your notes from The Bestseller Code already!

Haha, okay, I’ve given you my caveats. Don’t take these notes as prescriptive, but there is interesting insight into what this software program found as commonalities among The Da Vinci Code, Fifty Shades of Grey, and other mega-bestsellers.

1. Page turner

   1. The book has a “high concept” – it’s premise can be summarized in 25 words or less

   2. Not coy about the main goal from the start

   3. Characters who:

      1. take action and are emotionally intense. Intense commitment to their cause, while not always pure or selfless, is a goal most readers find worthy and important

      2. we can empathize with.

         1. They want the same kinds of things we want, but they are torn away from them

         2. They make the same kind of life-changing mistakes that we do

         3. They seem to be doing the right things, but nothing goes their way

         4. Reader’s emotional connection to character: 1 part pity, 1 part fear.

         5. Relatability and emotional relevance allows reader to connect to character

      3. For a long while, the characters seem to be overmatched; the task before them seems to be nearly impossible.

   4. Pacing

      1. References to the past are pared down to essential information. Keep the reader fixed to the page, like movies keep us fixed on the image on the screen.

      2. Serious peril—physical or psychological—in the early pages. (First 10 pages or so)

      3. Ticking clock

      4. Favor action over internal monologues

2. Big Picture

   1. A small story told against a sweeping backdrop

   2. Protagonists don’t share their thoughts much

      1. we see them from the outside, from their actions—social interactions, behavior, dress, what they say and do in private.

      2. Protagonists: vastness of their aspirations and their outsized bravery in the face of enormous tasks and dangers. What they lack in emotional dimensionality, they make up for in scale.

   3. Readers are carried away by big stories

3. The Golden Country

   1. Key motif in bestsellers is to have and then lose Eden, maybe try to get back.

      1. Examples of “Golden Country”: the lazy, easy, paradisical days before the war; the happy naiveté of youth, idealism, purity; a grandfather’s country home away from the city life.

   2. Protagonist alienated from this “golden country” and is struggling to return

4. “Secret Societies” are popular topics

   1. Glimpse into privileged sanctums – readers yearn for the curtains to be slid open. Think: Penthouse (like Fifty Shades of Gray), the mafia (The Godfather), boardroom, oval office, church (like The Da Vinci Code), and sometimes, literally secret societies.

      1. Secret society = any group that for some reason has isolated itself from the world by creating a collection of rules, rites, or covert behaviors that reinforces its separation from the larger population. It is exclusive, powerful in its domain, with its own initiation rituals and sense of justice and duty, sometimes its own language and criminal code.

      2. Then there are a select few who have mastered what’s required and have risen to the elite of the secret society. It’s usually not just class status, but earned seniority. (But wealth can come with it. Rise from poverty to position of power is common.)

         1. Underprivileged characters are more often the protagonists in bestsellers.

      3. There are gatekeepers/security at every echelon of the secret society to keep you out.

         1. Every inch of forward movement in The Da Vinci Code is propelled by an attempt to expose one shadowy secret society secret after the next. Break a code, solve a puzzle, penetrate the layers of high tech security, etc. while the society tries to stop him —> All leading to exposing the biggest secret of them all.

   2. Them vs Us

      1. deceitful and universal powers are conspiring against us.

5. Fish Out of Water is another popular type of protagonist – The main character is in a different setting, must find their true home

6. Mavericks – another common bestseller protagonist

   1. Heroes are rebels, loners, misfits, or mavericks. They don’t fit in, and that’s why we love them so much.

   2. Tension between mavericks and conventionalists.

What do you think?

If you’re a reader, do you recognize these elements from some of the bestsellers you’ve read?

If you’re a writer, are you going to incorporate any of this into your book (or have you already, without realizing it)?

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My Book and Movie Release Calendar: 2024

• March 5th - Damsel movie tie-in paperback edition

• March 8th - Damsel movie on Netflix

• May 7th - The Hundred Loves of Juliet summer paperback edition

• July 30th - One Year Ago in Spain - NEW RELEASE

1. Since the study focused only on bestselling books in the United States, the results are skewed toward what American audiences like to read. The researchers’ findings may not (and likely don’t) apply to other countries, where audiences have their own story preferences based on a mix of unique history, culture, personal & collective experience, and more.