How to Write a Bestseller

I think almost everyone, at some point in their life, considers writing a book. There is some innate human desire to record our thoughts, feelings and knowledge for others to discover.

So why do some people manage it when the majority either give up or never start? And why are some books best-sellers and others flop? How can you make your book the best it can be?

I can’t promise to make you into the number one selling author worldwide, if I could, believe me, I’d be charging more money for my services and then I’d retire. But having worked with journalists, editors and authors, as well as having written and edited myself, I do know a thing or two which can help give your book the best chance possible of being a bestseller.

Read bestsellers.

Whatever style or genre of book you are writing, head to your local bookstore, find the existing bestsellers and buy them. Then read them. Read everything until you know them so well, you are sick of them.

Read the blurb and really think about it. Read the contents page, if there is one, and consider the ordering. Read the acknowledgements. Do several books mention the same editor? Look at the imprint which published them, are their several from the same imprint?

A book is so much more than the words and if you can get to grips with a book as a whole, you’re writing will be informed by what sells and who sells it.

Whatever your topic is, whether it’s a historical novel or a cookbook, do your research. And I don’t just mean in terms of facts. It goes without saying that you need to actually get the facts right. I mean research how and when things are revealed in a novel. How much detail does the author assume the reader already has?

Reading other bestsellers will give you more than just inspiration. It will give you the keys to unlock your own bestseller.

Have a daily minimum.

And keep it low. If you write 60,000 words a day, you’ll end up with a novel. If you write 25 words a day, you’ll end up with a novel. The end result is the same, the only difference is timing.

Aspiring authors often set a daily target which is far too high. If you are juggling another career or kids or annoying friends or anything else, sometimes, writing 500 words a day is just too much. It’s great for about a month, but after that, it slides.

Set a minimum of 25-50 words. This means there is no pressure to write when you’ve got twenty other things going on. Writing just two sentences which come into your head or a couple of phrases makes all the difference.

If they don’t relate to the section you are working on right now, or you aren’t sure what to do with them at all, just pop them onto another page and be done for the day. Taking away the stress of writing huge amounts every day means your passion project stays a passion and doesn’t become a drag.

Believe me, 99% of bestsellers, are best sellers because the author was passionate.

Plan.

It is such a clichéd view of a writer who passionately pours their soul out onto a page over several days fuelled by coffee only to fall asleep and wake up days later to find they’ve written a masterpiece.

While such geniuses exist, they are rare. Plus, they’ve normally been agonising over the book in their mind for years anyway. But for almost every bestselling book written that way, I’m willing to bet there are 100 more bestsellers which were carefully planned, developed and transformed into over months, if not years. But probably with similar amounts of coffee.

Whatever it is, it needs structure. Plan the timeline of fictional events, plan how characters meet, plan how one recipe feeds into the next, plan how you progress from one time period to another, plan how topic feeds into another, plan, plan, plan.

You can keep a strictly detailed plan on your computer if you like or make one scrawled in crayon on your bedroom wall. However, you do it, do it. Bestsellers often have structures so well thought it they seem poised to answer questions as they spring into your mind, or leave you deliberately wondering. The structure of a good book is so natural, you’ll think it wasn’t planned at all, it merely sprang into existence. I promise you; it was planned.  

Get feedback.

Receiving feedback can be hard to stomach. Sometimes, if it isn’t presented to you nicely, it sounds like criticism. But getting feedback is so important that even if you hate it, you have to learn how to deal with, not take it personally and apply it to your work.

Feedback from those you trust can be a great way to not only see how you are progressing, but also see where you need to work. Perhaps you haven’t been as clear as you might think. Often, when writing down our own ideas we either don’t explain them enough, which can be confusing. Or alternatively, we over-explain them, which can come across as patronising, not to mention boring.

It’s also worth remembering that when you give someone a draft of your work, they don’t expect it to be perfect. Not only that, but you are literally asking them to find and focus on the bad stuff. If you struggle to deal with feedback and perceive it as negative, why not ask for three positive things they liked to help balance it out. This way, you know what to include more of and you’ll be more receptive to the things they enjoyed less.

Use an editor.

Now I know it might sound like I’m just saying this for my own benefit but it’s really going to help you. Editors exist for a reason. If everyone could do what we do, there would be no need for us to exist.

Editors are trained to spot the mistakes that you and your family and friend just can’t. A fresh pair of highly trained eyes who can take your book from something good to something great.

If you are working with an agent or a publishing house already, they may get their own editors to check over your work and give you a little nudge here or there. But I can tell you from experience having worked in a publishing house in London, even the big houses use freelancers sometimes.

Editors have specialities. Some only proofread. Some only copy edit. Some only offer commercial advice about the direction of the book and how to market it. But when they come across something which could be epic, they aren’t too proud to call in a specialist.

Find an editor who works in a way which suits you and knows what they are doing to help you and your text. Then, trust them. If a trained editor can’t make your book a bestseller, then I’m afraid no one can.