Bestseller List

The Amazon bestseller list is an odd beast. In theory, the best books should filter their way to the top of the list. Good books will sell well. However, this doesn’t always hold true.

One of the reasons I decided to go with a small publisher like Grey Grecko, and previously was considering self-publishing, was because of some of the books on the best seller list. There were obvious classics and big name authors. But mixed in amongst them were independent, self-published authors. Through all odds, their books had risen to the top and were providing their authors with a moderate, but steady, income. To get to the top of just the sci-fi genre top 100 requires several hundred book sales every month.

These authors proved that it was possible for a no-name author to be successful. After giving the books a try, it also showed me that I you don’t have to be a writing savant. I immediately felt that my writing was orders better than either of the two books I tried. And that’s saying something since I am the biggest critic of my own writing.  Comparing myself to any traditionally published book I’ve ever read, I’ve always felt like my stuff was crap. Reading a few of the best seller indie books, I felt like I was reading stuff I had written in middle school.

The basic stories were all okay. They had some logical problems, but what story doesn’t? When analyzed by anyone but the author, all story plots have some holes in them. But the idea was good enough that you wanted to ignore these holes. It was the writing that was just terrible.

Point of view would shift from paragraph to paragraph, making it impossible to tell who was doing  and thinking what. The dialogue felt like it was written by a middle school boy (who didn’t want to do the assignment). Grammar mistakes were obvious even to me (and I couldn’t tell you how to properly use a comma or the difference between “to” and “too” to save my life).

How did these stories get onto, and remain on, the best seller list? One of them even had more 1-3 star reviews than 4-5, and they all said it was in desperate need of a good edit. Part of it is the self-perpetuating nature of the best seller list. Once you’re on there, people are more likely to see and buy the book, keeping you on there. But you have to get there in the first place. What was it that made these crappy and completely unedited books make their way to the top? What made them stay there?

Figuring out that would potentially be very helpful. Unfortunately, the authors themselves have no idea. The ones I talked to were both very nice people, which is the reason I am not naming their books. I don’t want to call their books out specifically as bad. I’m happy for them and their success. But they don’t seem to have any idea how their books became that successful.

It raised the question of how I can pull Aristeia up from obscurity to join them on this list. Despite being proud of the final product for my book, I still think it’s just crap sometimes. But I never think it’s as bad as those books. What is it that they were able to do that I haven’t? Pure luck? Do people prefer simple, trashy, poorly edited stories as a quick read? Who knows.