David Farland's Daily Kick--Secrets to Writing a Million Dollar Novel or Script
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- Category: David Farland Newsletter
- Published on Monday, 13 February 2012 08:13
- Written by David Farland
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What Makes a Million-dollar Bestseller?
Many times when a writer starts to write his or her first book or screenplay, it is because the seed of an idea takes root in his or her head and the author feels that it must come out. This is the author’s primary motivation to write.
That's not a bad way to write, but unfortunately in many cases the new author will pen something that feels terribly important and profound to him or her while the rest of the world might not respond at all. That's because so many new authors write as a type of therapy.
The new author, after two or three sales, will often find him or herself sliding back down on the sales charts, and only then will begin to wonder what it is that the rest of the world would like to see in a story.
The answer to that question of course changes from reader to reader. But if you're looking to sell big, you need to do some research into what audiences like.
This is something that writers need to do for almost every story. My research process requires me to look not just at book sales, but also at popular movies and television shows—to try to get a snapshot of our culture as a whole.
The reason for this is quite simple. If I write a book, there are a limited number of readers for it. For example, it has been estimated that in my own field, fantasy, there are only about two or three million regular readers out there. I can catch some of those people as they wander past my books, but if I want to go really big
—say Harry Potter big—I need to do better than that. I need to create a sensation. I need to get enough publicity on morning television and radio shows so that it drives readers into the bookstore—the way that Rowling, Paolini, Meyer, and Suzanne Collins have recently have done.
In order to appeal to that wider audience, I look at several mediums and try to take some clues from them.
For example, let's take film. In order for a movie to gross $100 million at the box office, it has to draw a viewership of about 16 million people
—which is much larger than the number of hardcover sales made by almost any novel.
So, what can I learn from movie tastes? A few years ago I read a book on screenwriting. In it, the instructor listed the top 50 bestselling movies of all time and asked that you look for similarities. When I reached the end of the list, the author announced that there were NO similarities. But I had found three things that they all had in common. The list changes each year, but my points will still hold true. In fact, I’ve even found a few more similarities.
Here is the current list (as of 2/2012):
1 Avatar Fox $2,782.3 $760.5 27.3% $2,021.8 72.7% 2009^
2 Titanic Par. $1,843.2 $600.8 32.6% $1,242.4 67.4% 1997^
3 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 WB $1,328.1 $381.0 28.7% $947.1 71.3% 2011
4 Transformers: Dark of the Moon P/DW $1,123.7 $352.4 31.4% $771.4 68.6% 2011
5 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King NL $1,119.9 $377.8 33.7% $742.1 66.3% 2003^
6 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest BV $1,066.2 $423.3 39.7% $642.9 60.3% 2006
7 Toy Story 3 BV $1,063.2 $415.0 39.0% $648.2 61.0% 2010
8 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides BV $1,043.9 $241.1 23.1% $802.8 76.9% 2011
9 Alice in Wonderland (2010) BV $1,024.3 $334.2 32.6% $690.1 67.4% 2010
10 The Dark Knight WB $1,001.9 $533.3 53.2% $468.6 46.8% 2008
11 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone WB $974.8 $317.6 32.6% $657.2 67.4% 2001
12 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End BV $963.4 $309.4 32.1% $654.0 67.9% 2007
13 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 WB $956.4 $296.0 30.9% $660.4 69.1% 2010
14 The Lion King BV $951.6 $422.8 44.4% $528.8 55.6% 1994^
15 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix WB $939.9 $292.0 31.1% $647.9 68.9% 2007
16 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince WB $934.4 $302.0 32.3% $632.5 67.7% 2009
17 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers NL $926.0 $342.6 37.0% $583.5 63.0% 2002^
18 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace Fox $924.3 $431.1 46.6% $493.2 53.4% 1999^
19 Shrek 2 DW $919.8 $441.2 48.0% $478.6 52.0% 2004
20 Jurassic Park Uni. $914.7 $357.1 39.0% $557.6 61.0% 1993
21 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire WB $896.9 $290.0 32.3% $606.9 67.7% 2005
22 Spider-Man 3 Sony $890.9 $336.5 37.8% $554.3 62.2% 2007
23 Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs Fox $886.7 $196.6 22.2% $690.1 77.8% 2009
24 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets WB $879.0 $262.0 29.8% $617.0 70.2% 2002
25 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring NL $871.5 $315.5 36.2% $556.0 63.8% 2001^
26 Finding Nemo BV $867.9 $339.7 39.1% $528.2 60.9% 2003^
27 Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith Fox $848.8 $380.3 44.8% $468.5 55.2% 2005
28 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen P/DW $836.3 $402.1 48.1% $434.2 51.9% 2009
29 Inception WB $825.5 $292.6 35.4% $533.0 64.6% 2010
30 Spider-Man Sony $821.7 $403.7 49.1% $418.0 50.9% 2002
31 Independence Day Fox $817.4 $306.2 37.5% $511.2 62.5% 1996
32 Shrek the Third P/DW $799.0 $322.7 40.4% $476.2 59.6% 2007
33 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban WB $796.7 $249.5 31.3% $547.1 68.7% 2004
34 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Uni. $792.9 $435.1 54.9% $357.8 45.1% 1982^
35 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Par. $786.6 $317.1 40.3% $469.5 59.7% 2008
36 Spider-Man 2 Sony $783.8 $373.6 47.7% $410.2 52.3% 2004
37 Star Wars Fox $775.4 $461.0 59.5% $314.4 40.5% 1977^
38 2012 Sony $769.7 $166.1 21.6% $603.6 78.4% 2009
39 The Da Vinci Code Sony $758.2 $217.5 28.7% $540.7 71.3% 2006
40 Shrek Forever After P/DW $752.6 $238.7 31.7% $513.9 68.3% 2010
41 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe BV $745.0 $291.7 39.2% $453.3 60.8% 2005
42 The Matrix Reloaded WB $742.1 $281.6 37.9% $460.6 62.1% 2003
43 Up BV $731.3 $293.0 40.1% $438.3 59.9% 2009
44 The Twilight Saga: New Moon Sum. $709.8 $296.6 41.8% $413.2 58.2% 2009
45 Transformers P/DW $709.7 $319.2 45.0% $390.5 55.0% 2007
46 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 Sum. $701.6 $280.6 40.0% $421.0 60.0% 2011
47 The Twilight Saga: Eclipse Sum. $698.5 $300.5 43.0% $398.0 57.0% 2010
48 Forrest Gump Par. $677.4 $329.7 48.7% $347.7 51.3% 1994
49 The Sixth Sense BV $672.8 $293.5 43.6% $379.3 56.4% 1999
50 Kung Fu Panda 2 P/DW $665.7 $165.2 24.8% $500.4 75.2% 2011
Last update: Feb 2012
The list above has not been corrected for inflation, so the sales are skewed a little more toward recent movies than they should be, but they're accurate enough. Also, the rankings will shift as new big movies come out. So what do these films have in common?
Here are a few things:
Movies set in another time and or another place: 98%.
This tells us that movies that take us away from the real world and transport us into an alternate reality are far more popular than those set within a contemporary setting.
Movies with wide audience potential (Male/female): 100%.
Most of these movies have strong protagonists of both sexes and of various ages. Thus they draw in a much wider audience than, say, a teen chick flick. However, the main story focus is almost always on a relatively young male
—anywhere from a child to a man in his early twenties. I hate that statistic, but I can’t ignore it.
Movies with high emotional Richter-scale values: 100%.
The movies here tend to tug on the heart strings. Very often they achieve this by placing an entire "world" in jeopardy. But sometimes, as in Home Alone or Forrest Gump, the movie focuses on one very likable protagonist
—then puts him or her through hell.
Movies with heroic main plot: 98%.
Almost every movie on the list focuses on someone who is trying to save others.
Fantasy or SF: 94%.
Since I write fantasy I'd like to point out that fantasy movies have been topping the bestseller lists for decades. It's time that the studios take notice!
Alternate World: 80%.
Most of these movies that have done well have been set in an alternate world, not in our world.
So, as a writer, what can you learn from these points? Well, if you're trying to write a bestseller, this information might be something of a treasure map, pointing you in some likely directions.
Now, these figures hold true for the top 50 movies of all time, and they’re a good guide to how popular something might become, in general. But this is just a cursory glance at one medium of entertainment. A real analysis of bestsellers will need to take us much deeper
—into not just noticing what works, but understanding why it works, and how the studios "make it work."
Yet for today, it’s enough to simply notice a thing. We’ll be coming back to this in great depth over the next few days.
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Enjoying the Kick? Tell your friends who write that they can have it emailed to them for free by going to
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Retraction from Talespin Jim--These mini million dollar outlines workshops will not go over your story ideas. You will not be required to divulge your story secrets. They will be more of a brain dump.
