Bestsellers, what's the fuss?

zerky noticed that the bestsellers one can find near the checkout at most supermarkets are usually... well... not to her taste would be a mild way of putting it. She gets filled with a strange sort of dread at the thought of being caught reading something by Danielle Steel or one of those fantasy novels with a scantily clad woman on the cover... and then maybe there are some dwarves/elves/Ukranian midgets or something in the background.

zerky realises she's guilty of Pauline Kael syndrome when she's saying this, but she really doesn't know anyone who reads those impulse-buy bestsellers (or at least admits to reading them) and this very wiki is pretty scarce on information about them despite the volumes and volumes of work put out by some of these bestselling authors. Does anyone here read bestsellers? What is appealing about them? Is there a certain demographic that they appeal to that zerky (and the majority of tvtropes) does not happen to be in?

edited 31st Dec '10 6:38:41 PM by zerky

None of those supermarket books look intersting except for some young adult novels. The reason why they don't look appealing to me is because 90% of them looks generic. They seem to be aimed at mainstream niches.

edited 31st Dec '10 9:22:35 PM by mrjeff

There are a number of demographics that are represented poorly or not at all on TV Tropes. Romance and Bodice Ripper audiences are only two of them.

Makes me wonder why that is. Maybe because readers of that type aren't likely to be into analyzing fiction? I would suppose your average romance novel reader probably just wants an emotional thrill, not necessarily anything more.

I don't read those books myself, but my mother says she reads them because they don't require her to think.

^^ Self-sustaining cycle: we don't have much that's of interest to them, so they don't come here much. They don't come here much, so examples and trope specific to their preferred genre don't get added. Examples and tropes don't get added so it appears that we aren't interested in their preferred genre. We seem to be uninterested, so they don't stick around...

Well, that sure didn't happen with anime.

Both Anime and Professional Wrestling were the result of one very, very, very determined troper settling in to add as much as (s)he could. They got it to critical mass, and momentum took over. Any other genre could have the same thing happen, if that one very, very, very determined troper shows up.

Edit to clarify. Two different tropers, but in both cases, one person started it moving.

edited 1st Jan '11 7:11:20 PM by Madrugada

Those being Looney Toons and Heartburn Kid? Out of curiosity.

(And if anyone doesn't realize how much we have on professional wrestling, remember where Face–Heel Turn got its name.)

edited 1st Jan '11 7:12:16 PM by Tzetze

Yep, if I recall correctly. I'm pretty sure that was the two. If we get someone with a similar dedication to romances or to Westerns or to Radio Drama or to Theatre, we'll see those genres pick up steam as well. But we need that first hard shove, whether it comes from one person or several.

edited 1st Jan '11 7:32:00 PM by Madrugada

There was a Patricia Briggs novel at the supermarket once. Only time I've ever bought a book at a supermarket.

Mmm... Part of the reason zerky created this thread was to perhaps get some input on what sort of things make supermarket Romances and such good to the people who are into them. zerky is not a fan of these sorts of things and actually downright despises much of it, but if she went in with her own mindset and expectations... well, she'd end up hating it at best, and misinterpreting it at worst. To quote her own profile:

"It makes zerky sad to see an empty place where there should be a page, or a stubby little entry for a body of work large enough to swallow a wailord.

zerky sees it as her job to rectify this."

zerky finds that Literature in particular, does not have a super amazing representation on this wiki, and bestseller Literature to have some of the worst representation of all (even worse than children's books without TV or film adaptations!). To be able to read bestseller Literature understanding the frame of mind in which they're supposed to be read... well, that would just be one step closer to filling in the gaps! :D

Someone really should start adding examples of bestsellers on here. I mean, James Patterson has his own page, so why not?

Anyway, a lot of stuff that's bestselling is bestselling to the audience that wants it, and that audience wants something specific. It's like why I can't get into comic books. They all look the same - generic grimacing angsty superheroes. Yes, other stuff exists, but where is it?

With novels, at least, there's tons to choose from and you can readily see a lot if you look. But I do all my book shopping exclusively online, so maybe I'm just exposed to a greater variety of things that way. In fact, I haven't stepped into a bookstore in forever. Do they really push the bestselling mainstream generica only and have lesser-known stuff out of sight? If so, then it's like me and comics - you see the stuff that "everyone else" likes that doesn't appeal to you, and while stuff you would enjoy does exist, it's like they're hiding it from you!

Does anyone here read bestsellers?

I tried to read the Bible once.

I do on occasions. It's generally a book I'd read anyway, being a best seller rarely factors into it. Although I did find it amusing that the local grocery store keeps Warhammer books in stock.

well, my uncle has a whole library of bestsellers, and i have read some of them.

mind you, some of them arent bad at all. you just need to know what to expect. they arent innovative, and they arent meant to make you learn or rethink anything, but instead they are 100% story and because of this the good ones can be pretty adicting. i think i may have read some tom clancy,but it didnt leave a mark. in bestsellers i really like john katzenbach, he is an excellent example of a good bestseller writer: no innovation, no real creativity; but a well made plot with just enough characterization to keep you going yet not enough to make you want to dwelve further. i think thats the key here, lit fics are to be reread, you have to "digest" them. bestsellers are pretty much action movies/romantic comedies on paper, you read, you have fun, and you throw them away to the dusty depths of your library.

Hm... that's definitely something to chew over.

zerky's never been into romcoms so she can't speak for those, but a large part of the fun of action movies is actually seeing the stuff happen. Big-budget CGI explosions aren't really the same as reading them on paper. Then again, this probably indicates that zerky needs to work on her imagination skills. :(

What books do better than movies, I think, is get you to empathize with the characters by seeing things the way they do. Books can describe feelings and thoughts, which doesn't translate to a visual medium. Furthermore, narration itself can set a mood. A scene might be funny in a book because of the telling, but not be funny at all if you were to actually watch the same events transpire without a narrative setting the mood, by describing things a specific way.

These days a "bestseller" is an advertising gimmick.

Best-sellers aren't actually best sellers.

Terry Pratchett: I remember very kindly being put in my place by a bookshop manager some years back. I'd wondered why my latest book wasn't on the shop's Best Sellers shelf, having been number one for three weeks; he said "well, you see, you're not exactly Best Seller list material."

Ooh, those books at the check out counter? Some of those have the covers where the flap has a circle cut out to show a face on the inside. I remember as a kid pulling opening the covers to see what was happening.

Most people I know who are into them are older. I guess it's that fantasy zone they like to be in. Enough for them to self-insert a little, over the top situations and, of course melodrama. I'm surprised people don't adapt those into soap operas. You could pack away a nice little bundle.

Yep, if I recall correctly. I'm pretty sure that was the two. If we get someone with a similar dedication to romances or to Westerns or to Radio Drama or to Theatre, we'll see those genres pick up steam as well. But we need that first hard shove, whether it comes from one person or several.

This REALLY pisses me off. Not in the "I HATE YOU TV TROPES" but in the "YOU MEAN IT'S THAT EASY?"

Now I want to go and advertise on romance, western, radio or theatre boards.

I say go for it. I think the more diverse this site is in material, the better. Someone needs to take the initiative to start articles on things they like that aren't popular, or it won't happen.

I don't really know any boards like that though, and the email thing is gonna be a pain, but hey, maybe I will.

The first thing to do, I think, would be to start the articles yourself. Once there's a good number of articles on those types of subjects, then you can mention the site to others, which is probably the harder part. Promoting a website without coming across as spamming would probably require you to be a part of their community and naturally slip it into conversations, which is very time-consuming.

But still, just having a large number of articles alone will help more than any advertising and requests for help would.