Formula Identifies Title as Main Factor in a Book’s Success

A formula painstakingly developed by a group of statisticians to determine the secret of producing best selling novels has baffled its own creators. If it were to be applied universally, then this year’s bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code, would have been a flop with a 36 per cent chance of reaching the charts. The formula worked out by Alvai Winkler, a former academic at Middlesex University, and his team for the U.K. wing of the self-publishing website Lulu.com to help its customers to better target their books to the market tastes, can be applied to works by some top selling authors but surprisingly gives only moderate marks to the Harry Potter titles and rules out almost everything by Charles Dickens except his little known The Battle of Life.

January 8, 2006 by Uncategorized 0

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