The Art of Nonfiction Success: Decoding the secrets behind best-selling books and what sets them apart from the competition!
Malene Bendtsen ?? Publishing Rebel
Author coaching A-Z and book publishing for experts, public speakers, and other great minds with a message to share. Business books, self-help, and health books. 100% author ownership. Print, ebooks, and audiobooks. MBA.
Closing in on a decade in the publishing industry, I witnessed a tremendous shift in publishing and what makes and breaks author success. While I think many recognise this shift, old beliefs and what used to be undeniable truths seem very persistent and remain unquestioned or unchallenged. Therefore I set out to do my own analysis and identify common traits of bestselling nonfiction books in 2024. I am pretty sure there are a few things that will surprise you!!
In this article:
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Which books did we look at?
The books included were on the bestseller lists for the week of January 21, 2024. We did a deep dive into Amazon.com (updated weekly) and included the following books in the analysis:
We also did a surface dive into the New York Times Bestseller list (updated weekly) to see if the pattern was similar. There is an ugly truth hidden there that I will come back to. We included the 10 highest-ranking books in the sub-categories Advice, How-to, and Miscellaneous.
What we looked for
We wanted to make the analysis as useful as possible and created an overview of the "exterior" like how the books were published and which formats ranked highest. But we also analysed the "interior" to provide an overview of what a bestseller book will likely include.
More specifically we analysed the following:
?????? So what did we find?
PUBLICATION
?? Rankings in Most Read and Most Sold are not alike. A total of 16 books matching our criteria reached the lists, but only 7 of those made both lists. 6 books only made the Most Sold list but not the Most Read list. The remaining 3 books that only made the Most Read but not the Most Sold list, also were the only 3 books that didn't ALSO rank in one of the 3 subcategories (Self-help, Health, fitness & dieting, and Business and Money).
?? This means that out of the surveyed 23 books, 20 books ranked in one or several of the 3 subcategories (Self-help, Health, fitness & dieting, and Business and Money). 1 book ranked in all three of them, 11 of them ranked in two of them, and 8 books ranked in one.
?? Only two of the books also ranked on the New York Times Bestseller list that week. One was Outlive which was number 3 (hardcover) and number 5 (ebook/print). The other was The Body Keeps The Score which was number 6 (ebook) and number 3 (paperback). No other Amazon Bestsellers made the list.
???? Truth bomb: However powerful it may be to add NYT Bestseller to your book cover, there is little sense in how that can happen. You need to sell 10,000 copies in one week - and it will likely drop off the list the following week if you can't keep sales at that level. Sales also have to be spread among multiple channels and nationwide locations. You'll for sure need a large author platform, a massive email list, and lots of promotion partners. Despite these requirements, rankings are NOT a reflection of which books sell more. Accumulated sales are not a factor (sales over time) and The Times is known to favour the Big New York publishing houses. Rumours are persistent; you need the right friends too.
It should be noted that half of the books, at some point earned the NYT Bestseller mark.
?? While the overall ranking includes all formats, books are ranked by format in the categories. We scrolled down 40 books in each category (Self-help, Health, fitness & dieting, and Business and Money) and found that the 20 books in total occupied 54 spaces. And now it gets interesting!
?? 28 of the 54 formats were audio books! - 52% - more than half!
?? In 20 of those occurrences, the audio version ranked higher than its print/ebook cousins! (same book)
???? You should publish all formats - and probably consider making the audio version the one you promote the hardest and launch first!
?? On average, books on the Most Read list were on the list for 187 weeks (3,6 years) and on the Most Sold list for 105 weeks (2 years). On both lists, those numbers cover everything from 1 week to 350 weeks.
First of all, clearly, there is little room for new books on the overall Most Read and Most Sold lists. Books on Most Read (on Kindle or listened to on Audible) tend to stay, 50% for more than 256 weeks. Most Sold tend to be "younger" on the list, but still, almost half are more than 2 years old. Unfortunately, we don't have the same numbers for the categories but since, as already mentioned, books on Most Read/Most Sold are also ranking high in the categories, there is one thing that you MUST take for this:
???? You should only position your book in one of these large categories if you have a massive email list and social media following as well as a vast range of strategic partners to rely on in your launch. Otherwise, your book will likely end up so far down the list that noone will ever see it. Instead, carefully analyse subcategories and find those with good sales but little competition.
?? I mentioned how big publishing houses rule in New York (NYT Bestseller list). They also rule on Amazon. One of the reasons may be the longevity of the titles on the ranking list and self-publishers may catch up over time. I think more likely, self-publishers of nonfiction books (especially in the dominant categories) are less interested in rankings and more interested in building consistent backend sales. Those who sell enough books to make the list, prefer to sell via their own channels and strategic partnerships with highly targeted audiences and willingness to use their platform to promote the book. These authors can make a lot more money (even if they give the book away for free) by collecting the customer data themselves.
?? Books on these lists have 52.896 reviews on average. On Amazon that is. But bestselling books are pulling a ton of traffic from Readers' platforms like Goodreads. In fact, they have 5x as many reviews on Goodreads, 264.227 reviews on average.
Amazon isn't too unhappy about Goodreads bringing in all these readers. On the contrary, you can now also see the amount of Goodreads reviews directly on the Amazon book details page right next to the amount of Amazon reviews.
???? You should consider asking for reviews on Goodreads as well as or even rather than Amazon. This way you'll impact readers loyal to many different book stores.
Other interesting facts
?? Only 6 of the bestsellers have a blurb on the front cover; 2 from New Your Times, 1 from Wall Street Journal, 1 from Paulo Coelho, 1 from an internationally recognised coach, and 1 from a Pulitzer prize winner. 17 don't have a blurb.
???? Only put a blurb on the cover if it's someone your audience immediately recognises as an authority.
?? Only 1 of the bestsellers has the author portrayed on the cover (Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki), but this book also just celebrated its 25th anniversary.
?? Almost all bestsellers are published in paperback, hardcover, kindle and audio formats. One book stood out, Two women walk into a bar, being self-published, only in digital formats, 5-7000 reviews, and with a listening length of just 51 minutes. This book hit the charts, published as recently as January 2024!!
领英推荐
STRUCTURE
Now, let's look at the lengths and which components bestsellers share or don't share.
?? On average, a bestselling paperback is 352 pages and a bestselling hardcover is 350 pages. However, it we sort by what readers care the most about (in this case, we use Goodreads reviews and indicator), 4 out of the top 5 books (with the most reviews) are under 330 pages.
?? There is no significant pattern in terms of trim size.
?? The average length of the audiobooks is 9 hours and 16 minutes. but they come in all lengths. If we exclude Sapiens which in its nature is different from the the rest, and again lean on which books readers care to give reviews on Goodreads, the average length of the top 5 books is 6 hours.
???? Your goal is not just book sales but to ensure readers take action and get some initial result that encourages them to continue on their transformation journey with you. A book of 200 pages does the job, possibly better than a 400-page long book.
Now, when it comes to the structure, we didn't have all of the books at hand and not all of them offer a preview on the platform. Some of them, we were able to find on our bookshelves, however we didn't want to wait for Amazon delivery to Denmark, which is super slow. So the following is based on the information at hand.
?? The majority of bestseller books do not have a foreword by another person.
?? The majority do not offer contact information to the author but only to the publisher. Tsk tsk... Typical! ?? Atomic Habits and The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck are good examples of books focused on the monetisation of the back end ????
?? Most have a super short (5-8 words) dedication at the front of the book and acknowledgements at the back. Some have a list of praise at the front but we can't say that it's common practice.
?? Most don't have a preface or foreword but go straight to an introduction. If there is a traumatic or otherwise eye-gouging personal story that is the basis of the author's journey, that can be used as the introduction. If your story isn't super unique, you'll probably want to start with a surprising fact instead.
?? Many don't offer complementary downloads - which in my opinion is a mistake. You want to do everything in your power to own customer data.
?? Average number of chapters is 17, ranging from 8-30). 25% of them have 20 chapters.
?? Half of the books offer an index at the back. Most of these also offer not only sources but suggestions for further reading.
?? The majority of bestsellers make use of extensive storytelling
Summary: Top traits that bestselling books share.
Here are the five things I recommend you take away from this for your own author journey:
1?? Record the audio version before you start designing the book
2?? Forget about the major categories
3?? Build your Goodreads account as soon as possible
4?? Make readers love your book
5?? Convert readers to customers
Ok. Enough. Before you go, I have just a few extra goodies for you that I think you will love.
NEWS
It just got easier to distribute auto-narrated audiobooks
Findaway Voices by Spotify has begun accepting digital voice-narrated audiobooks from Google Play Books for distribution to select retail partners. Google Play Books currently offers auto-narrated audiobook creation and editing for existing ebooks at no charge to the author. The book description will be prepended with the first sentence stating “This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.” This will appear on all listening platforms where the audiobook is distributed.
Audiobooks included in Spotify Premium subscription
?? Spotify Premium users now get 15 hours of audiobooks included in their subscription. Great news for independent authors looking to find new audiences and an opportunity for your book to sit next to titles by the big publishing houses. And more good news, this will finally be available in Europe from March 2024 as a result of the region's new competition law for Big Tech.
???? If you already published print, have you considered auto-narrating the audiobook?
People Spend an Average of Six Hours a Week Listening to Podcasts
According to a study conducted by Edison Research, the average American spends about?six hours a week listening to podcasts. The same research shows that a typical podcast listener listens to five episodes a week.
???? All authors should consider two podcast strategies; being a guest on as many podcasts as possible and starting their own podcast (yes, for listeners - but more importantly to build strategic relationships with guests).
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?? The Short Rebel News ??
Brand Designer
10 个月Thank you for publishing your findings.?
Founder/Co-founder, Author, Investor, Board & Committee member, and Keynote Speaker turning ideas into reality.
1 年Excellent article with lots of great insights. Thank you Malene Bendtsen ?? Publishing Rebel
Book Cover Hub Founder and Lead Designer | Expert in Book Design
1 年So well researched!