What makes a book sell?

[Ete'ni]

.

Edited June 11, 2014 by Ete'ni

[Scriptorian]

And here is a totally relevant WoK quote to sum up this conversation:

 

"Too many of us take great pains with what we ingest through of mouths, and far less with what we partake of through our ears and eyes. -Shallan Davar

BRANDON SANDERSON IS AWESOME!!! 

Edited December 8, 2013 by Serendipity

[Sasukerinnegan]

But you see, the point I was trying to make is that some of these 'popular' books are so full of plot holes, character holes and with a very weak story......I feel it's not fair to the really hardworking writers and not just Brandon, I might add, that such weak writers sell so amazingly well while far better sell far less. I admit this is my subjective viewpoint........ To prove my point, Christopher Paolini, for eg, writes around 350 words a day while Brandon writes 2500 - 3000 words a day. (I got their word counts from their interviews). The Eragon books are full of holes, in the magic system and plot, (despite writing so slowly) but he sells amazingly well anyway. That is just not fair to those who work so hard....... Not to mention, this sets poor precedents for the future...... Future writers might well think why they make so much effort and instead start writing poorly written hacks of Tolkien with dragons, dwarfs, elves and the same old story.........and sell atrociously well too, for their poor effort.........If any of u are in doubt, I request you to read the books Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey or Eragon. 

[Gamma Fiend]

I think it's safe to say the OP really doesn't like the Eragon books, Twilight, or that 50 Shades Nonsense.
I agree, I don't like them either.

But for Eragon, I think the major selling point of that book is the fact the author was fairly young when he wrote it (around 16? I believe, not 100%) even if it was mostly just copied, cliche fantasy.
I think it mostly just gets chalked up to personal preferences, really. More people seem to be into cheap, shallow rip-off novels that don't have much depth or plot complexity or consistency. And so that's what gets marketed more successfully. It's a shame that epic, awesome fantasies are mostly ignored nowadays, but I'm sure we all know dozens of people (if not more) that will refuse to touch a book if it's over 200 pages. It's almost as if they're scared to challenge themselves to a read a real book.

[Ete'ni]

.

Edited June 11, 2014 by Ete'ni

[king of nowhere]

But you see, the point I was trying to make is that some of these 'popular' books are so full of plot holes, character holes and with a very weak story......I feel it's not fair to the really hardworking writers and not just Brandon, I might add, that such weak writers sell so amazingly well while far better sell far less. I admit this is my subjective viewpoint........ To prove my point, Christopher Paolini, for eg, writes around 350 words a day while Brandon writes 2500 - 3000 words a day. (I got their word counts from their interviews). The Eragon books are full of holes, in the magic system and plot, (despite writing so slowly) but he sells amazingly well anyway. That is just not fair to those who work so hard....... Not to mention, this sets poor precedents for the future...... Future writers might well think why they make so much effort and instead start writing poorly written hacks of Tolkien with dragons, dwarfs, elves and the same old story.........and sell atrociously well too, for their poor effort.........If any of u are in doubt, I request you to read the books Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey or Eragon. 

alas, the world is not fair.

[EC11]

Well to give my own opinion I'd say much of it has to do with both luck, and audience.

 

For instance, look at Paolini, he was a kid who wrote a book at 16 and through luck, managed to get it published. The big appeal of that series to many readers was a) it was written by a kid which people found cool and the familiarity (and some might say generic feel) of the plot. You didn't need to ponder out too many details and the plot was refreshingly breezy with some fun ideas to follow.

 

I for one liked it but I'll also say it wasn't the pinnacle of good literature 

 

Then look at JK Rowling, it was marketed for kids, and the books really matured with the readers, an entire generation grew up on those books and it practically followed the kids from pre-school to highschool. You can see how that would stick with people, and it will probably make the books stick in peoples minds for ages.

 

As for Stephenie Myer...well moving on.

 

We can see though that each book is marketed to a specific audience and one which just seems to hit a nerve with said audience.  This is partially through both luck and skill. Say what you will about the authors but its clear they have skill to do things and write characters (no matter how flawed they might be).

 

One good example is that of David Weber, he writes books about big honking space battles and that's what made him famous so he keeps pumping those books out. One might say that the entire plots of the novels are really just window dressing for the gratuitous space carnage that gets thrown around, and that's fine. He knows his audience and his books sell.

 

Brandon Sanderson too is a man who knows his audience, but remember, he's also a fairly new author whose been writing for years but in terms of some authors (like Rowling or Weber) has only just broken into the market and is still generating a sizable and devoted following. 

Edited December 13, 2013 by EC11

[Shardbearer]

I don't think Paolini was lucky. If I remember correctly he and his family put a lot of effort into self publishing and promoting the first book before self publishing was cool or easy. He went to a bunch of schools and libraries  to promote it.

 

I guess there was some luck since according to Wikipedia the stepson of an author found it and liked it, and his dad ended up pitching it to his publisher, who picked up the series. But it looks like it took a lot of work to make the luck happen.

[EC11]

I don't think Paolini was lucky. If I remember correctly he and his family put a lot of effort into self publishing and promoting the first book before self publishing was cool or easy. He went to a bunch of schools and libraries  to promote it.

 

I guess there was some luck since according to Wikipedia the stepson of an author found it and liked it, and his dad ended up pitching it to his publisher, who picked up the series. But it looks like it took a lot of work to make the luck happen.

 

His family did indeed own a small publishing company, but it would appear that without all the hard work he put into getting it known it really wouldn't have taken off otherwise. I mean he was getting it known, but without the backing of a major publisher it probably wouldn't have been nearly as successful as it ended up being.

 

I for one admire the effort he put into it, if not the writing.

[Altonahk]

His family did indeed own a small publishing company, but it would appear that without all the hard work he put into getting it known it really wouldn't have taken off otherwise. I mean he was getting it known, but without the backing of a major publisher it probably wouldn't have been nearly as successful as it ended up being.

 

I for one admire the effort he put into it, if not the writing.

That's a common mistake. Paolini self published. His parents founded a "publishing compony" to handle some of the legal (taxes, printing rights, etc...) sides of the "buisnes". They did NOT own the company when he finished the book, they founded the company so he could publish it. Which is simular to how Brandon sanderson is the president of Dragonsteel Entertainment.