Jodie Archer

Matthew L. Jockers

"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 Ask most people about massive success in the world of fiction, and you'll typically hear that it's a game of hazy crystals balls. The sales figures of E. L. James or Dan Brown seem to be freakish—random occurrences in an unknowable market. So often we hear that nothing but hype explains their success. 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 tell-tale signs of success all over their pages? Thanks to Jodie Archer and Matthew Jockers, 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 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 20,000 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. This book explains groundbreaking text mining research in accessible terms and offers a new perspective on the New York Times bestseller list. It is big-idea book about the relationship between creativity and technology that will be provocative to anyone interested in how analytics have already transformed the worlds of finance, medicine and sports. But at heart it 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.

The Bestseller Code

Se perguntarmos para a maioria das pessoas sobre sucesso no mundo dos livros de ficção, vamos ouvir que é um jogo incerto de bolas de cristal. As vendas de E. L. James ou de Dan Brown parecem uma excentricidade — ocorrências aleatórias em um mercado incompreensível. É frequente ouvirmos que só a moda justifica o sucesso que fazem. Mas e se houvesse um algoritmo que pudesse revelar um DNA secreto de best-sellers, independente do gênero?

Tudo o que você precisa saber para escrever um livro campeão de vendas

O segredo do best-seller

Přemýšleli jste někdy nad tím, co přivedlo stovky tisíc čtenářů po celém světě ke knižním hitům jako Zmizelá, Dívka ve vlaku nebo k trilogii Milénium? Co kdyby existoval algoritmus, který by uměl předpovědět, ze kterých románů se stanou #1 knižního trhu? Autoři zpracovali data z více než 20 000 románů vydaných za posledních padesát let a přišli s odvážným tvrzením – až s 97% jistotou lze předem určit, jestli rukopis bestsellerový potenciál má!

Šifra mistra bestselleru

Hat „50 Shades of Grey" auch Ihre Kasse kräftig klingeln lassen? Und haben auch Sie sich gefragt: „Warum?" Verlagsprofi Jodie Archer und Englisch-Professor Matthew Jockers haben einen Algorithmus entwickelt, der die Antwort darauf gibt – und der mit 97-prozentiger Genauigkeit vorhersagen kann, welche Schmöker zu Bestsellern werden. Archer und Jockers haben viel Überraschendes über unser Leseverhalten und das Erfolgsrezept fesselnder Romane herausgefunden, zum Beispiel: Menschliche Nähe kommt an, Sex (meistens) nicht. Dieses Buch, welches bereits Furore in der deutschen Presse gemacht hat, ist etwas für alle, die Belletristik lesen, verkaufen, einkaufen, lektorieren ...

Was uns ein bahnbrechender Algorithmus über Bücher, Storys und das Lesen verrät

Der Bestseller-Code

"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 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? Thanks to Jodie Archer and Matthew Jockers, 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. This book explains groundbreaking text-mining research in accessible terms and offers a new perspective on the New York Times bestseller list. It's a big-idea book about the relationship between creativity and technology that will be provocative to anyone interested in how analytics have already transformed the worlds of finance, medicine, and sports. But at heart it 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.

Anatomy of the Blockbuster Novel

This sneak peek teaser - featuring literary giants John Grisham and Danielle Steele - from Chapter 2 of The Bestseller Code, a groundbreaking book about what a computer algorithm can teach us about blockbuster books, stories, and reading, reveals the importance of topic and theme in bestselling fiction according to percentages assigned by what the authors refer to as the “bestseller-ometer.” Although 55,000 novels are published every year, only about 200 hit the lists, a commercial success rate of less than half a percent. When the computer was asked to “blindly” select the most likely bestsellers out of 5,000 books published over the past thirty years based only on theme, it discovered two possible candidates: The Accident by Danielle Steel and The Associate by John Grisham. The computer recognized quantifiable patterns in their seemingly opposite, but undeniably successful writing careers with legal thrillers and romance. In Chapter 2, Archer and Jockers analyze this data and divulge the most and least likely to best sell topics and themes in fiction with a human discussion of the “why” behind these results. The Bestseller Code is a big-idea book about the relationship between creativity and technology. At heart it is a celebration of books for readers and writers—a compelling investigation into how successful writing works.

Jodie Archer

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