What Factors Determine A Book’s Success

Dee Power | Photos | Media Placement |Interview Questions | Press Releases | Brian Hill

How Does A Book Become A Bestseller? , March 15, 2005

What Factors Determine A Book’s Success?, February 1, 2005

The Making of a Bestseller January 15, 2005

The Path to Publication gets a little steeper in 2005, January 1, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Dee Power or Brian Hill
480-837-9590, authors@brianhillanddeepower.com

As part of the research for The Making of a Bestseller: Success Stories From Authors and the Agents, and Booksellers Behind Them, Dearborn Trade, March 2005, Dee Power and Brian Hill, the authors, surveyed over 100 editors and agents earlier this year to determine what factors are the most important to a book’s potential success.

Previous Success is the Key Indicator of Future Success

Editors and agents are in agreement that the fan base, whether the author’s previous book was a bestseller, and the quality of writing are the keys to success. Agents attribute more of the success to the book getting good “word of mouth” promotion than editors do. Editors think the timeliness of the topic is much more important than agents do, although a significant number of agents gave that a number one ranking (11 percent) in importance.

Agents and editors both discounted the importance of reviews to sparking sales of a book. This contradicts the advice given to “new” authors that it is critical they get their books reviewed. These results could also indicate that as an author becomes more successful, has built a fan base and has had previous bestsellers, reviews decline in importance.

For writers yet to produce a bestseller or establish a significant fan base, comfort can be taken in that both agents and editors rank quality of writing in the top four factors. Great writing wins out. However, there are no hard and fast criteria about what constitutes “great writing.” It comes down to subjective judgments made by individuals.

About the Authors:
Brian Hill and Dee Power were inspired by their own publishing experiences to research and write The Making of a Bestseller. Hill and Power have also co-authored Inside Secrets To Venture Capital and Attracting Capital From Angels. Besides nonfiction books on the exciting subject of ‘success,’ they write novels and screenplays in the suspense and action/adventure genres. Both authors have Master of Business Administration degrees. Power has been interviewed as a publishing industry expert from the author’s point of view by the New York Times, Washington Post, ,Associated Press and Publishers Weekly. Contact them through their website www.BrianHillAndDeePower.com or call 480- 837-9590.

About the Book:
The Making of a Bestseller: Success Stories from Authors and the Editors, Agents, and Booksellers Behind Them ($19.95, 256 pages, 6 x 9, softcover, ISBN: 0-7931-9308-7) is available at neighborhood and online booksellers or by calling 1-800-245-BOOK.

Dearborn Trade Publishing, a Kaplan Professional Company, is the nation’s premier trainer and information provider for business and financial leaders committed to profiting from breakthrough ideas. Kaplan Professional provides licensing and continuing education training, certification, professional development courses, and compliance tracking for financial services, legal, IT, and real estate professionals and corporations. Kaplan Professional is a unit of Kaplan, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).