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The Bestseller Code: Anatomy of the Blockbuster Novel Hardcover – September 20, 2016

by Jodie Archer (Author), Matthew L. Jockers (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 328 ratings
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“Non-formulaic, eye-opening, deeply-researched ― and really worth your time.”― GQ

Jodie Archer and Matthew L. Jockers' The Bestseller Code: Anatomy of the Blockbuster Novel is a big idea book that explains their text-mining research through a groundbreaking look at the New York Times bestseller list. It explores the relationship between creativity and analytics, picking bestsellers via algorithm with a high degree of accuracy. We know that technology has transformed the worlds of finance, medicine, and sports; now it's making its mark on books.

Ask most people about massive success in the world of fiction, and you’ll typically hear that it’s a game of hazy crystal balls. The sales figures of E. L. James or Dan Brown seem to be freakish―random occurrences in an unknowable market. But what if there were an algorithm that could reveal a secret DNA of bestsellers, regardless of their genre? What if it knew, just from analyzing the words alone, not just why genre writers like John Grisham and Danielle Steel belong on the lists, but also that authors such as Junot Diaz, Jodi Picoult, and Donna Tartt had telltale signs of success all over their pages?

The algorithm exists; the code has been cracked; and the results bring fresh new insights into how fiction works and why we read. The Bestseller Code offers a new theory for why Fifty Shades of Grey sold so well. It sheds light on the current craze for dark heroines. It reveals which themes tend to sell best. And all with fascinating supporting data taken from a five-year study of twenty thousand novels. Then there is the hunt for "the one"―the paradigmatic example of bestselling writing according to a computer's analysis of thousands of points of data. The result is surprising, a bit ironic, and delightfully unorthodox.

At heart, The Bestseller Code is a celebration of books for readers and writers―a compelling investigation into how successful writing works, and a fresh take on our intellectual and emotional response to stories.

Previous slide of product details
  1. Print length
    256 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    St. Martin's Press
  4. Publication date
    September 20, 2016
  5. Dimensions
    5.76 x 0.95 x 8.53 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1250088275
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1250088277
  8. See all details
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The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Non-formulaic, eye-opening, deeply-researched ― and really worth your time."― GQ

"A thought-provoking and interesting book." ― The Financial Times

"Reveals the diverse directions in which popular fiction may be taken. . . the bestseller-ometer may find its most noble application as a democratizing force" ― The Atlantic

"[T]his is a delightful book to read. I would recommend it as both an entertaining and educational read for anybody interested in the business of books." ―Digital Book World Daily

"This interesting little tome shares some of the Bookputer’s insights with us, just in case we want to become author-millionaires too. And who doesn’t? . . . Fascinating." ― The Times Review

"Aspiring novelists who thumb through this volume will find plenty to think about. . . [T]his book actually represents an opportunity for literary scholars." ― Public Books

"Archer is not some Silicon Valley whizz-kid looking to reduce the novel to 0s and 1s, nor is she a pretentious academic coming over the hills to sling around jargon about middlebrow novels. . . [She] is smart, savvy and full of ideas." ―The Times of London

"A laboratory is a more compelling setting than a church." ― The Wall Street Journal, which named The Bestseller Code one of the most-anticipated books of Fall 2016

"[The] claims are eye-grabbing. . . [and] also highly plausible." ―The Spectator

"Archer and Jockers “are ‘literature-friendly’ and want good books to succeed."―Wired

"When a story captures the imagination of millions, that's magic. Can you qualify magic? Archer and Jockers just may have done so." ―Sylvia Day, New York Times bestselling author

"The Bestseller Code excited me, scared me, and generally blew my mind. Archer and Jockers have built a reading robot that can teach readers, writers, and publishers a great deal about how popular fiction works. This is a pioneering work in a new science of storytelling." ―Jonathan Gottschall, author of The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human.

"Archer and Jockers take an astonishing insight into the DNA of bestsellers and turn it into a gripping page-turner about how we read. Truly remarkable!" ―Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, co-author of Big Data and professor at Oxford

"May revolutionize the publishing industry." ―The Guardian

"The Bestseller Code is an intriguing read and its analysis of what makes a plot tick and how readers are grabbed is compelling."―Literary Review

About the Author

Jodie Archer bought and edited books for Penguin UK before she decamped for the doctoral program in English at Stanford University. After her PhD, she worked at Apple as their research lead on literature. She is now a full time writer.

Matthew L. Jockers was the co-founder of Stanford University’s Literary Lab in Silicon Valley. His digital humanities work has been profiled in the New York Times, LA Review of Books, and more. He is Associate Professor of English at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and co-author of The Bestseller Code.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Press; First Edition (September 20, 2016)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250088275
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250088277
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.7 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.76 x 0.95 x 8.53 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 328 ratings

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  1. Jodie Archer

    Jodie Archer

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    Jodie Archer PhD was born in Yorkshire, England and holds BA and MA degrees in English from the University of Cambridge as well as a PhD from Stanford in English. She has worked in books for almost twenty years, including top books jobs at Penguin and Apple. Jodie has studied with the international University of Metaphysical Science and is awning her PhD from that university, based in Arizona.

    Jodie's website is www.jodiearcher.com. Please visit her there.

    See more on the author's page
  2. Matthew L. Jockers

    Matthew L. Jockers

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    Matthew L. Jockers is a distinguished research scientist and senior research manger, overseeing the personalization science teams for Apple Books, Podcasts, and Video at Apple. Previously, he was Dean of Arts and Sciences and Professor of English and Data Analytics at Washington State University. Jockers’s research is focused on computational approaches to the study of literature. His books include Macroanalysis: Digital Methods and Literary History (University of Illinois, 2013), Text Analysis Using R for Students of Literature (Springer, 1st Edition 2014, 2nd Edition 2020), and, with Jodie Archer, The Bestseller Code (St. Martins 2016).

    See more on the author's page
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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
328 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the insights in the book powerful, detailed, and fascinating. They describe the book as interesting, brilliant, and inspiring. Readers also praise the writing style as engaging, informative, and easy to understand.

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InsightReadabilityWriting style
23 customers mention "Insight"20 positive3 negative

Customers find the insights in the book powerful enough to enable them. They say it has good information for writers and is detailed. Readers also mention the book is fascinating, with incredible science explained.

"...the information (once you reach it about a third into the book) is very useful and insightful." Read more

"This is a well written, bit technical book. But I am a technical guy. I enjoyed the book and the style...." Read more

"...for writing a best selling novel, but it does provide authors with some insight into the common elements of successful books...." Read more

"...And, oh, yeah, my Editors will exclaim "His book is so professional that I can't believe it's a first novel." That quote is the background..." Read more

16 customers mention "Readability"16 positive0 negative

Customers find the book interesting, entertaining, and worth reading. They also say it's brilliant and insightful.

"...For the right audience, this is a book worth reading." Read more

"Very interesting, but if you're a fiction writer, I'm not sure what use you can make of the knowledge imparted by this book...." Read more

"...and this book is dead on!!!! I love it." Read more

"...Good read. I recommend." Read more

12 customers mention "Writing style"9 positive3 negative

Customers find the writing style engaging, informative, and easy to understand. They say it inspires effective agency in writers and is full of good advice for novelists. Readers also mention the book gets them excited about their manuscripts.

"...With a few tweaks here and there, my manuscript now gets me excited...." Read more

"...But I am a technical guy. I enjoyed the book and the style. They must have used what they learned in producing this book...." Read more

"...the majority of it is a bunch of either obvious stuff or far too vague to be meaningful...." Read more

"This incredible book inspires effective agency in the writer...." Read more

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5 out of 5 stars
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This book is a must read for every serious fiction author! I'm so impressed! I have a computer screen surrounded with post it notes of every invaluable nugget to refer to as I write my supernatural thriller each day! 5 stars
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Top reviews from the United States

Kourtney Heintz
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and Insightful--Definitely Worth a Read!
Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2017
Verified Purchase
This is a fascinating look at the fabric of a bestseller. While all writers are told to read the bestsellers and look for patterns of why the books work, these authors actually had computers analyze thousands of non-bestsellers and bestsellers for thousands of factors and saw the actual patterns of what made something more or less likely to be a bestseller. If you've ever wondered why Fifty Shades of Grey was such a hit--this book explains it and it's not simply because it was mommy porn. I really enjoyed this new perspective on what makes a book hit a list. A lot of the patterns had to do with key writing concepts--beat sheets, powerful verbs, active protagonists. It was refreshing to have all that writing advice reconfirmed with actual statistical proof. This book will not teach you how to write a bestseller, but it will tell you some of the hallmarks of bestsellers and it will make you think about your story from a new perspective. I highly recommend it!
12 people found this helpful
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JamesOsiris
4.0 out of 5 stars Good information but too much fluff
Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2017
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This book contains quite a lot of filler to pad the results and try to make it more exciting. I'd have preferred more meat and less fluff, including more examples of reports. However, the information (once you reach it about a third into the book) is very useful and insightful.
4 people found this helpful
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MD
5.0 out of 5 stars Saved My Book from the Abyss of Meh
Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2016
Verified Purchase
Data for books the way it should be.
I will admit I love data and how concrete it is. As a creative who straddles the line between that and the analytical, this truly scratched my itch. I'm currently working on a book that will be finished in mere days. After reading this book (in one setting of an afternoon), I took my notes and takeaways and revisited what I'd written.
Mistakes that I'd never have seen blared at me. Not the normal mistakes of grammar or developmental issues--no mistakes that would have sent my book into the abyss of Meh. With a few tweaks here and there, my manuscript now gets me excited. I was able to change my perception of my writing to provide the entertainment ride it should be.
I will not attempt to tell you what I did, because I believe this books should be experienced in the customization of your own needs as a writer. I will say that I found the graphs they provided on pacing, the tips on theme and their examination of "The Girl" books and how 50 Shades and Da Vinci Code could be twins to be very illuminating.
This book may not be for you if you do not enjoy the value of data, have the ability to grasp the data and then conceptualize it into how it pertains to you or believe that a computer can read a book and then tell you how to make yours better. But, if you are adventurous enough to challenge your view of how to approach your next book, this one might be for you.
I love learning new things about writing and myself. This book allowed me to do that.
16 people found this helpful
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David B. Mignery
3.0 out of 5 stars Where's the Good Stuff?
Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2016
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As a novelist, I was interested in the insights this book might offer as to what most readers of novels are looking for. It does provide some insight, however I was very surprised at what was left out. I won't try to explain how the author's computers analyzed books except that they apparently accumulated considerable data on the frequency of certain themes, topics, plot-lines, names, words, word categories, and phrases that appeared in bestsellers as opposed to non-best sellers. Most bestsellers don't appeal to me as a reader, and, as an author, I’m not particularly interested in writing that type of book. But, as an author, I am interested in finding an audience.

As the authors and several reviewers point out, this book is not intended to help authors write bestsellers, however, it would have been very instructive to any author to learn which themes, topics, plot-lines, names, words, word categories, and phrases appear most often in bestsellers as opposed to non-bestsellers. Such data could have been easily shared with us, but, inexplicably, it is almost completely absent in this book. It would also have been interesting to see this data provided for separate genres, as well as for those non-bestsellers which achieved widespread critical success.

The authors do provide lists of bestsellers relative to certain themes, topics, and plot-lines in order of conformance to the computer’s criteria for bestsellerdom, but these lists seem to be essentially useless. All this leaves me with the question – why did Archer and Jockers leave the most interesting and useful parts of their research out?
14 people found this helpful
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Poetic Grandpa
5.0 out of 5 stars They found what would sell!
Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2022
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This is a well written, bit technical book. But I am a technical guy. I enjoyed the book and the style. They must have used what they learned in producing this book. (They didn't include any dogs.) For the right audience, this is a book worth reading.
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MrTechieGuy
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but can you put it into practice?
Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2018
Verified Purchase
Very interesting, but if you're a fiction writer, I'm not sure what use you can make of the knowledge imparted by this book.

One of the messages of this book is that your writing style, like your DNA, is ingrained. That's why text analysis worked to uncover, for example, that "The Cuckoo's Calling" by Robert Galbraith was really written by J.K. Rowling. I take from this factoid that if your particular writing style does not happen to fall into the "bestseller style" category, you're doomed -- you're not going to write NY Times bestselling fiction no matter how hard you try.
5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Rosane
5.0 out of 5 stars Muito bom. Leitura fácil
Reviewed in Brazil on June 26, 2024
Verified Purchase
Respeito ao prazo. Embalado e protegido.
Leitura fácil e interessante
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Leticia McEwen
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in Canada on June 23, 2023
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Very good
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Ramon
4.0 out of 5 stars Don't read it to become a better writer
Reviewed in Spain on May 18, 2024
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If you're going to read this book to find the "secrets" on how to writer a bestseller, you're going to be very disappointed.
This is an academic study, not a list of advice on how to become a bestselling author. It provides statistics, but the "advice" (or rather, the conclusions) can be summarized in less than half a page -which is exactly the size of my notes.
Could you write a bestseller with those notes? That's pretty unlikely. These come down to some pretty basic things, like human closeness and writing like people speak. The thing is, you have to combine all that "advice" into something workable. The "code" in the book is not a magic algorithm that will allow you to write a book, because It does not even list the main parameters of the algorithm and their weight, much less the formula. It simply provides the conclusions of the program that they developed to evaluate books. As the programis not available to the public, you cannot run your manuscript to improve it.
Interesting as an academic study, it's pretty worthless for authors intending to write a bestseller.
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カマンベール
5.0 out of 5 stars ベストセラーコードの原書
Reviewed in Japan on September 1, 2023
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日本語版より安くてコンパクトだったので購入しました。一度日本語版を読んで内容を知っていたので、読み返したい時や参照したい時用に購入しました。とても興味深い本ですが、あくまでもアメリカの出版物についての話です。
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Greta
5.0 out of 5 stars Lesenswert
Reviewed in Germany on March 23, 2018
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Gute und unterhaltsame Lektüre. Interessant, was einen Bestseller auszumachen scheint. Kurzweilig und gut erklärt. Kann man somit Lesern aber auch Autoren ans Herz legen.
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