Translator: TED Translators admin
Reviewer: ila S. Hello. What makes a best seller? So, here is a picture of 50
of some of the top selling novels of the last few years. The question is: why these
and not 50 others? What made these so special? Were they better written? Did they have stronger covers? Were they just lucky? These are some of the questions
that have obsessed me as a literary agent
for more than 20 years. There's one thing that connects
all these books. And that's you, you: the reader. You went out and bought these books,
infused and raved about them. You made these books best sellers. And there's one thing that unites
everyone in this theater. That is that feeling you get
when you've read a great book. The first thing you want to do
is to tell someone about it. To share your discovery. Because reading
is fundamentally a social act. Even though we do it on our own. What better feeling is there
than when you've read a great book and you've recommended it to someone and they come back to you
and they say, "Wow, thank you! That book changed my life." It makes you feel good, doesn't it? In fact reading does make us feel better. Scientists have proved that reading
leads to better mental well-being. It even delays the onset of dementia. Reading makes us better. But also, reading makes us better people. Two social scientists in America, called
Emanuele Castano and David Comer Kidd recently did tests into the link between the reading of literary fiction
and better theory of mind. In other words, the more we read the more empathy we show
to our fellow human beings. Reading makes us better people. So why did we pick these books
above all the others? By the way there are many others
to choose from. In the UK alone last year,
184,000 new books were published. Double that number in China. About 300.000 in America. There are a lot of stories out there. So how do we find them? Why does some rise to the top so quickly? It all starts with the author, the book,
and someone like me: a literary agent. I'll receive a manuscript
of about 300 pages on my desk. At that point all that it is,
is words on paper. There's no commercial,
intrinsic value in it until I can find a publisher to tempt them to invest
their resources to promote it so that you go out and buy it. As a reader you look for a story
that takes you on a journey from somewhere you haven't been
to a place you know not where. But as a literary agent. I'm looking for something
slightly different: I'm looking for a story
that takes you on a journey but from somewhere familiar
on a bridge to somewhere new. That may surprise you. You may think,
"What's he talking about? I only read original fiction. What's the point of reading
something familiar?" It doesn't really work like that. Because publishers find original material
very difficult to market. By its nature it changes everything
from what's preceded it. It's hard to compare anything to. To quote Jack Nicholson
in "A Few Good Men", publishers, they can't handle
the original. No publisher went out
and look for "Ulysees" or "Finnegans Wake" or "Lolita". These books, they just happen. The best thing a publisher can do
is just not get in its way. What does a literary agent look for
to get a book on that chart? I've divided it into
5 essential components. The first, I've already hinted at,
which is this idea of the bridge from somewhere familiar
to somewhere new-ish. This just allows us shorthand
in the business. To talk about books
in a way that we can say "It's this meets this". So they will be able to hedge
their bets with the book seller and put it in a category. If I went back to our chart
and I had a thriller, I went to the publisher and I said, "This thriller is "Gone Girl"
meets "The Da Vinci Code" Well, you'd know immediately
that it's a psychological thriller with a probably strong female lead but probably has a conspiracy
at its heart. If I was to take a novel and say it was a cross between
"Life of Pi" meets "The Kite Runner". You'd know it was a fable
or survival story of some kind but set in a conflict zone,
possibly the Middle East. If I was to take a children's book
and say it was a cross between "Winnie-the-Pooh"
and "Fifty Shades of Grey" - (Laughter) That probably would be wrong.
(Laughter) But you get my meaning.
(Laughter) So once we have this hook we then look for something very important,
which is the voice. Everyone in this room has a voice
unique to themselves. We all use our voices in different ways have different emphasis,
different intonation. If you can translate your own unique voice
onto the page, then you're a writer. But it's difficult. If you can write a novel
that only you could've written, at that time, in that way then you might get
your novel on that chart. But the voice is nothing
without the next component which is just craft. Because writing is hard work. It's a skill. It's a muscle that needs exercising. And, to be honest
authors find it very difficult. They write draft after draft. I have one author who I represent who's known to do between
15 and 17 drafts after he submitted to the publisher. There are many ways
you can perfect your craft. You can join a writing group. You can enlist
in a creative writing course. You can even get tips on the Internet. In fact there are some very good ones. There's a couple I've always used,
which I'll share with you now. One is something
that John le Carré once said. When he was talking about story he said, "The cat sat on the mat is not a story. The cat sat on the dog's mat. Now, that's the beginning of a story."
(Laughter) There's another tip. This is, I think,
one of the best descriptions of how prose works, that I've ever seen. So I wanted to share that with you. I'm going to read it,
but please, read along. "This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together are monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It's like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length,
and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm,
a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain
the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence
of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus
of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals, sounds that say,
listen to this, it is important." (Laughter) (Applause) It's very good.
(Applause) Now the next thing I look for is deeper, and slightly beyond the plot,
the bridge, and the hook. This is what I call resonance. This is how does a book resonate with as many people as possible and as many readers
as quickly as possible. A lot of this depends on the zeitgeist. What's going on in the world at that time
and it is difficult to predict. But publishers and agents
often take a punt. They gamble what they think
people will be interested in. Barbara Broccoli, producer
of the James Bond movie franchise once said that she looks out
into the world and asks, "What are we afraid of?" And then tries to find
the physical embodiment of that fear in the Bond villain. There are other things that we look for
that have deeper resonance. If I went back to my chart
and took a few novels for example. "Room" which has just been made
into a fabulous movie. That was a very successful novel. Not just because the hook
of the story was strong. It was about a mother and child
entrapped in a cellar trying to escape. But because on a deeper level, it resonated with people because it's about
parental love in its purest form. "The Time Traveler's Wife". A hugely popular novel of a few years ago with a great hook. A love story doomed because
one of the characters is a time traveler. Why did that work? Because it was about
absence in a relationship. Particularly male absence. And that resonates with a lot of people. "One Day" by David Nicholls. Massively popular novel and a big movie. Brilliant hook: a romance
set over twenty years on the same day. Why did that work to such a level? Because it was about missed opportunities. We can all relate to that. Now, the final element that I look for is perhaps the most mysterious
and the most difficult to explain. But I think you'll get this
if you enjoy reading. And that is we look for the space
between the sentences. The gap that an author leaves in order for us, the reader, to inhabit. We do this with our imagination,
our experience, our feelings. The better the book
the more this space will allow us in. It's another way of looking at it. Howard Jacobson recently
made a documentary about the making of
"The Merchant of Venice" into a novel which is recently published. I thought it was interesting what
one the Shakespearean experts that he discussed
his problematic play with, said. Steven Greenblatt said, "There is no question that 'The Merchant
of Venice' is an anti-semitic play. Nonetheless" Dot dot dot. He didn't finish the sentence
because he didn't need to. Because what we look for in every story
is The Nonetheless. Sometimes writers themselves don't know
they've stumbled on a story that might hit on that chart. Which may seems a bit odd because they've spent
a long time writing 300 pages. But I often sat in my office
with young writers and said to them,
"What's your story about?". They've said, "It's about love, death,
marriage, redemption, betrayal". Yeah, but what's the story about? Can you complete the sentence: "This is the story about
a man or a woman who..." And they will be stumped. Because it's very difficult to reduce
a complex story to one sentence. It's hard. But I believe it is absolutely crucial if a book is to become
a big best selling book. You have to be able to communicate
the core idea easily. Not all narratives
lend themselves to that. But I do believe
that every great classical narrative can be reduced to a sentence. For example, "Hamlet". It's about a man
who cannot make up his mind whether to avenge his father's murder. It's about a little more than that but that's what's driving it through
to the end of the fifth act. "Macbeth", about a man whose ambition
proves his own downfall. "King Lear", about a foolish king
who picks the wrong daughters. And so on, and so forth. But ultimately what I'm talking
about is discovery. How you as a reader and me
as a literary agent discover stories. And we do this by immersing
ourselves into them. We give of ourselves. We have to be open, free,
generous, uncluttered. We have to take a risk with these stories. Now, discovery isn't always instantaneous. As a literary agent I know
that I can take on a writer and it maybe there are 5 or 6 novels
that gets on that chart. A few years ago I had one author
who had a problematic second novel. Not uncommon.
It's called "second album syndrome". You spend your life
writing your first novel then suddenly you're given a deadline
and you have to write a second. We sadly agreed to put this novel aside
even though she'd done all this work. And then I said to her
at the end of the meeting, "Have you got any other ideas?
Any other stories?" She said,
"There's this picture in my house. It's a print of a painting. I sometimes look at it and wonder what's
the story of the young woman in it." I thought that sounded like a nice idea.
"Why don't you write that?" This was the picture. Six month later Tracy Chevalier
delivered "Girl with a Pearl Earring". That book went on to sell
6 million copies. It was made into a movie. Now, did I discover that book?
No. But I discovered the author and together we found a way to discover
the right story to get on that chart. Finally, the way we discover books
is because of publishers. They put a cover on, a blurb,
even the title they manipulate. All to try and get us to buy the book. Sometimes they get it right
and sometimes they get it wrong. Here's an example of where
I think they got it right. This is George Orwell's
"Nineteen Eighty-Four". I think it's a very brave cover
by Penguin [Books]. Here's an iconic cover,
"Jurassic Park", Michael Crichton. Does what it says on the tin.
Love it. And sometimes they get it wrong. I have no idea
what the designer was thinking of when they came up with this. (Laughter) [Roald Dahl - Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory] To be honest, the next one
puzzles me even more because until this point I didn't know
Sylvia Plath was chick lit. (Laughter) But, to be fair to these publishers they get it right as many times
as they get it wrong. I can be sent the perfect manuscript. It ticks all the boxes and I send it to the right editor. We put the perfect cover on it
with the perfect blurb. The book sellers rave about it,
put it in the front of their stores. The reviewers love it. And it doesn't sell a copy. Why? Well, to quote William Goldman,
the famous screenwriter, "Nobody knows anything."
(Laughter) Somewhere along the line
we made a lot of tiny errors. Maybe that cover,
that looked so good in my office, when it was in the book shop, next to
all those other very colorful covers, just disappeared. Perhaps the title was wrong. Maybe the blurb was misleading. Maybe we should have gone back
and edited that ending again. Who knows. All these tiny reasons
why a perfectly good book doesn't get on that chart. So have I answered the question
what makes a bestseller? Well, if I really knew that answer
I'd be sipping a martini on a yacht somewhere,
waving to you from that big screen. What I hope
that we have discovered together is that it's us
that makes these bestsellers. We allow them to happen. We create as well. The reader and reading is a creative act. And really, ultimately, all that matters is that the next book you buy
might just change your life. Thank you very much. (Applause)
