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Jodie Archer

Matthew L. Jockers

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

by Jodie Archer (Author), Matthew L. Jockers (Author)

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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.

Print length

256 pages
Language

English
Publisher

St. Martin's Press
Publication date

September 20, 2016
Dimensions

5.76 x 0.95 x 8.53 inches
ISBN-10

1250088275
ISBN-13

978-1250088277
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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 (September 20, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250088275
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250088277
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.76 x 0.95 x 8.53 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,133,433 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #310 in Movie Industry
- #645 in Media & Communications Industry (Books)
- #676 in Data Mining (Books)

Customer Reviews:
173 ratings

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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.
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Matthew L. Jockers
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Matthew L. Jockers is 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, 2014), and, with Jodie Archer, The Bestseller Code (St. Martins 2016). For more information, see www.matthewjockers.net
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Customer reviews

5 star		56%
4 star		21%
3 star		16%
2 star		5%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Kourtney Heintz

Brilliant and Insightful--Definitely Worth a Read!

Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2017

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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!

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Roboticist

Thought-provoking analysis

Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2019

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What makes a best-selling book?

The authors of this book did a massive amount of research and then masterfully explained it between these two covers. This book will not give you a formula for creating a bestseller: The authors are clear that successful authorship starts with personal mastery of your craft. This book will, however, create an awareness of some important differences between successful authors and the wannabes.

This book also illustrates a process for solving an incredibly complex problem using multiple attacks and dis-assembling into components. People interested in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer-aided problem solving will find this especially interesting.

3 people found this helpful

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smgrosser

Must read for authors!

Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2017

Verified Purchase

I was hesitant to read this. I didn't want to believe that a machine could write a book. I wanted to believe in the magic of human creativity.

After reading it, I was relieved to learn that human creativity is alive and well. But we can find patterns to improve our writing style and connect with readers on a deeper level. If you want to understand your readers better and deeper their experience of your work, read this!

For readers - you may discover why you loved that special book so much!

9 people found this helpful

Helpful

Charles J. Darnell

Missing a Channel to Market

Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2016

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The Bestseller Code is intriguing and full of good advice for novelists. The book itself is written like a couple of academians seeking to fulfill a publishing requirement. Most of all they don't seem to get it that their code/process could be used to charge writers to submit their current book to be analyzed and critiqued. I have three of my own books I would pay to see what their system would say.

8 people found this helpful

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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.

2 people found this helpful

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PDP8S

Pacing is Important

Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2016

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In a book about text analysis data they don’t present a lot of data. Their main conclusion is that pacing is important. There are a few interesting side notes about the publishing industry.

9 people found this helpful

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JamesOsiris

Good information but too much fluff

Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2017

Verified Purchase

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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TainaRead

Just amazing

Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2017

Verified Purchase

Amazing! There are books on how to write blockbuster novels, etc. but this Bestseller Code looks at writing in a very different way. The fact that the detailed analysis of bestseller books is done by a machine is in itself amazing but let's not forget that two people knew how to input the data in the computer. When I finish reading I had a clear picture of the anatomy of a bestseller book.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Willie Taylor

A good read - but perhaps a flawed program?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 17, 2016

Verified Purchase

As someone who has worked in Publishing for many years and also someone extremely interested in "big data", this was always going to be a book for me. If you were not from this background then you may find this a bit of a slog.

I have a serious problem with the way they have looked at the data. I find they have "backfitted" somewhat. For example, if you see that Stephen King has had dozens of bestsellers over the years and then match up the next Stephen King with the Bestseller data then it will obviously give the new one a high chance of success.

Also there wasn't enough time spent on looking at frontlist sales/ backlist sales, distribution, marketing spend, social media hype etc. "Robert Galbraith" was doing absolutely nothing out of the ordinary until it was revealed as JK Rowling (hence why the reveal was made).

22 people found this helpful

George G.

I had high expectations of this book but it is ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 27, 2017

Verified Purchase

I had high expectations of this book but it is shockingly lacking in substance. When they do talk about their own study they do it SO unscientifically that it is hard to take away much meaningful at all. The rest (the majority) is just half-relevant waffle.

6 people found this helpful

Lasse Hjorth Madsen

Very well written on a nerdy subject

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 1, 2018

Verified Purchase

A great book if you are at all into statistical analysis of text (natural language processing). If you're just a regular book lover, it could easily be worthwhile also, although the technical approach might not be for everyone. It is, however, well written and well explained, so everybody should be able to follow. I enjoyed it very much.

2 people found this helpful

cinzia de santis

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 26, 2016

Verified Purchase

Good, but not convincing.

One person found this helpful

Amra Pajalic

Food for thought

Reviewed in Australia on September 28, 2017

Verified Purchase

Some interesting insights about what makes a novel bestselling and it gave me some food for thought about my current MS. Readers like everyday language, journalists/copywriters are being disproportionately represented on the blockbuster lists because they have mastered the art of writing to appeal to a large audience, the success of the 'girl' titles is because of female agency, and don't overload your novel with too many topics are just some of the tips I got for this book.

Written by a writer and academic it did sometimes feel that the academic view of justifying the research and hypothesis was too slow. I would have liked more of an emphasis on the craft of writing.

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