Million Dollar Outlines - 2013

Part 7: Why Do Research for Becoming a Bestseller?

Many times when a writer starts to write his or her first book, 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. We write about conflicts and situations that resonate with us personally instead of the world at large. (See my book, Drawing on the Power of Resonance in Writing.)

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. Hence, many authors fail in their careers after only a couple of books.

The answer to that question—what does the reader want?—of course changes from reader to reader. But if you're looking to sell big, you need to begin doing some research.

My research process requires me to look not just at book sales, but also at popular movies and television shows, even video games and comics—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, and Meyer 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 many years, in the United States a hit movie has been defined as one that grosses $100 million in the domestic box office. 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 you learn by studying viewer's 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 has changed in the past ten years, but my points will still hold true. In fact, I've even found a few more similarities.

Here is the list of top box office movies (as of 2012):

Top Grossing Movies Worldwide (in thousands)

1— Avatar (2009)

$2,782.3

2—Titanic (1997)

$2,185.4

3—The Avengers (2012)

$1,511.8

4—Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011)

$1,328.1

5—Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

$1,123.7

6—The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)

$1,119.9

7—The Dark Knight Rises (2012)