Amazon.com Review
What makes a book a bestseller? What separates The Celestine Prophecy, What to Expect When You're Expecting, and How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive from the rest of the pack? In Inside the Bestsellers, Jerrold R. Jenkins explores the stories behind these and 15 other bestselling books, in an attempt to uncover how a book becomes (and remains) a blockbuster. Jenkins's prose is less than lyrical, but the same could be said for many of the books he writes about, and that didn't stop them from reaching cult status. What Jenkins learns is that most of these books--such as Betty J. Eadie's Embraced by the Light, Richard Paul Evans's The Christmas Box, and Sandra Haldeman Martz's When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple--emanated from some deep-felt place within the writer or editor. He also learns that their authors are almost all indefatigable promoters. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, for instance, the authors of Chicken Soup for the Soul, pride themselves on never turning down an interview. But don't be misled. While grit and passion might be necessary ingredients for making a bestseller, they are not necessarily enough. As Julie Bennett, the coauthor of 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth says here, "Nobody can 'create' a bestseller.... Once a book leaves the warehouse it takes on a life of its own. It's either going to hit a nerve or not." --Jane Steinberg
From Publishers Weekly
As a book producer for independent presses and the publisher of Small Press magazine, Jerrold Jenkins has plenty of experience with small-press publishing. In Inside the Bestsellers, Jenkins (with the help of Mardi Link) looks at what takes a small-press or self-published book into the big time. Through interviews with 18 authors, such as Ken Blanchard (The One Minute Manager), Betty Eadie (Embraced by the Light), H. Jackson Brown (Life's Little Instruction Book), Richard Paul Evans (The Christmas Box) and James Redfield (The Celestine Prophecy), Jenkins shows how writers turned frustrated quests for information, gifts to family members or life-altering personal experiences into bestselling books.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
