about a bestseller?

Question

hi! i'm totally inexperienced here & I'd like to hear your comments

what does it all depend on

except for the quality of work

are there publishing houses that are better at promoting something if they feel what the author has written is truly spectacular

how does it happen

thanx for your replies

Answer 1

Wish I knew the answer to this. but I can only guess (for what its worth) !!
I reckon its down to publicity, which in turn means down to cash! Probably on a par with a 'top ten' record hit, get enough publicity and people will buy.
But I cant honestly say this is always the case, I've read some really good best sellers, and I'm ashamed to say that I have never even tried to find out how they made it to the top, they certainly didn't all have 'cash up front' when they started!
So I think the first step would be to find a publisher that thinks enough of your work to buy it from you, and let them splash out the cash on the initial publicity, if you get one going well I'm pretty sure some of the others will follow! .
My favorite author of all time is Leon Uris, fantastic author!.
Now you have asked this question I intend doing a bit of research to find out how he got started, and perhaps some of the other best selling authors.
So while I haven't helped you much, you have given me a little project to get stuck into.

Answer 2

try going to: howstuffworks.com and type in 'best seller' or something along those lines. It does a good job of giving you ideas of the process of things. You can also check out the bios of some best selling authors and see what they did. It has to do so much with luck and who you know, unfortunately.