The Difference Between a Good Book and a

Bestseller...

Recently I met with a client who wanted to understand the difference between her books—which sell well, to be fair—and the most successful books in her niche. This is a question that many authors shy away from. Rather than looking critically at the market (which changes constantly!) and their books, many authors fall down the rabbit hole of self-doubt and self-pity: I started too late. I don’t have the money/time/skill/patience.

The truth is, the greatest teachers are right there in front of us. The bestselling books in any given niche have several things in common. Here are three qualities that differentiate a good book from a bestseller.

1. A good book is important to the author. A bestseller matters to the reader.

   What does this mean and how can you apply this your writing? You can find the answer by looking at the books that are enjoying the success you aspire to. If you’re writing romantasy, you need to consider what Rebecca Yarros, Callie Hart, and Nisha J. Tuli are doing right. Should you emulate, copy, or steal their ideas? Absolutely not. Please don’t!

But you should give the people what they want. Rebecca Yarros’s breakout bestseller Fourth Wing gave the people what they wanted: easy to consume, easy to follow, easy to get into fantasy. What does that mean? Read the book and decide for yourself. You may not want to write young adult-ish characters who drop F-bombs and ride dragons. But what makes that book an easy sell for readers?

Take a look at this review:

What does this review tell me? This reader and the 2400 people who liked this review at the time I grabbed this screenshot felt the book had great action. That means pacing. Great pacing starts with a great premise that has clear stakes. Love it or hate it, there is a lot to learn from Fourth Wing. If you’re writing romantasy, you’ve got a masterclass from the pitch alone: Top Gun with dragons.

2. A good book gives a reader interesting characters. A bestseller creates a character so real, complex, and complicated, the reader can’t put the book down because they do not want to miss what the character will do next. Sure, in theory, we all think we’ve written great characters. But consider this:

A Flicker in the Dark was a debut novel! How did it earn Goodreads awards, get optioned for a limited series, and earn over 400,000 reviews? (Yes, 444,948 as of today to be exact!)

This reviewer says it all: Pulled into the story from the very beginning. Kept me guessing who did it. Could not put it down. The main character is not lovable! Good books give us good characters. Bestsellers take characters in an urgent, often unbelievable situation and makes us wonder: What? Why? How? The character hook digs into us from page one and does not let go until the last page.

I read this book and felt so unnerved and excited from page one to the end. Almost from the first page, I didn’t trust the narrator, and that excited me. Was I hearing from the killer? Or someone who knew the killer’s secrets but refused to see them? I loved every twist and turn, and yet the author did not invent the wheel here. A narrative voice that is lean, untrustworthy (yet disturbing in her honesty), and plenty of false leads? Those are the seeds of a bestselling story.

3. Last but not least, good books have great banter and witty one-liners. Bestsellers have highlights that make readers want to make memes.

It’s hard to argue with a book that has over 1,000,000 (ONE MILLION, friends!) reviews on Goodreads. But what we can learn from Ana Huang’s wild success with Twisted Love is that what readers want isn’t just smart, isn’t just witty. They want swoon-worthy, mark the page, highlight the passage quotes. Check out some of the 1,000+ quotes that have been highlighted by readers of Twisted Love on GR:

Are any of these lines words of untouchable literary genius? No, of course not. And that’s not to throw shade at Ms. Huang! These are great lines made memorable (and meme-worthy) by an author who made these moments tear open the hearts of her readers.

Could any character on the planet in a contemporary grumpy-sunshine romance say If you wanted, I would burn the world down for you? Absolutely. But when Alex says this to Ava, his dark soul and her sunshine come together in moments that make this not just clever—these lines become emblematic.

If you want to write a bestseller, start by reading them. What do they do that works better than what you’re doing? Lean prose, meme-worthy moments between the characters, a complex unreliable narrator, fast-paced action, deep stakes… Use what works in your genre, sub-genre, and niche, and you can level up your good writing to great and your good sales to bestseller status. Happy writing, and even more important, happy reading! Bestsellers aren’t just fun to watch climb the charts; they are our best teachers.