Making the List: A Cultural History of the American Bestseller, 1900-1999

Here's a fascinating look at the bestseller lists from the last century from a true expert and long-time book editor, Michael Korda. I appreciated this cultural look at what makes the list. In his introduction, Korda writes, "Despite the inherent suspicion on the part of authors that the list is manipulated by somebody, in fact it isn't controlled by publishers any more than it is by bookstores. Of course many of the books on it are reasonably predictable--particularly novels by big, established authors--but at least half of the books on any given week's bestseller list are there to the immense surprise and puzzlement of their publishersd." See the hope for authors built into the information about bestseller lists? I often recommend this title to writers.

I just came across this book a couple of days ago at my local 'big box bookstore'.I enjoy 'books about books'and this one certainly falls into that category.I have never paid much attention to bestseller lists for a couple of reasons.First,I tend to read mainly non fiction.I have found the fiction writers I enjoy,and except for Steinbeck,Twain and one or two others, are not on the bestseller lists.So,of all the fiction out there,new and old,I find so much to read that I don't need a list to tell me what is a bestseller and must be read.Although I have read several of the best seller writers,I haven't been enthused enough to read all their stuff;Larry McMurtry being the exception.I guess he falls into the one a year bestsellers; but even some of his are getting to feel like publish or perish books.To me, it seems that with most artists their early stuff is the best.I find that so with Steinbeck,Erskine Caldwell,McMurtry and most of my favorite writers. Merle Haggard once stated that his earlier work was his best because he lived the experiences then but not any longer.I find the same with authors. I found this book very good in that it demonstrates that best seller lists are something created and pushed by the book publishing and selling industry,and for their interests and not necessarily the buyers and readers of their products.In other words,it is primarily a marketing tool,and while probably very useful to them,not particularyy for the reader who finds his own treasures to read;and doesn't just read to follow what is being pushed in the media. The book business has had a very rough ride in the last several years and has tended to play catch up or as often said,"lead the parade from the rear."This is very evident from reading this book.The customer (reader)will decide what to read not the marketeer.No matter how much the establishment tries to push their preference it doesn't change anything. A couple of statements in the book are very telling: "the bestseller list began to resemble a club that was hard to break into" pg.172 "Do you guys realize how much money the company would make if you only published bestsellers?" pg.173 ""a publishing house that plays it safe,even if it satisfies it's corporate parent,will sooner or later collapse." pg.197 "the bestseller lists of the nineties made for relatively depressing reading,except to accountants." pg.199 "In 1990,for example,the fiction list for the year contained not a single newcomer-all fifteen who made it were established,familiar bestselling writers,most of them on a yearly basis.It was,if you like,the triumph of brand-name merchandizing applied to books." pg.196. In other words the lazy approach. A great read to see what bestseller lists are all about.

It was on May 22, 1946, that I finished reading and enjoying Fifty Years of Best Sellers 1895-1945, by Alice Payne Hackett. So when I saw this book I thought it would be fun to read, and it is. The author incivisvely comments on the best seller lists during the 20th century, and of course it is fun to see which books one read were best sellers. I was surprised to see that I had read 101 books which were number 1 best sellers in a year, either in fiction or non-fiction. This surprised me since I do not use, or at least I have not for many years, the best seller list to decide what to read. It is also interesting to see which great books never made the list. For instance, The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara, I have thought an outstanding book ever since I read it back in 1981, and it won a Pulitzer Prize, but never made a year best seller list! If nothing else, this book will open your eyes to how much poor choosing some people do when they decide to buy a book...

Michael Korda, editor in chief of Simon and Schuster, has collected lists of the bestselling books (fiction and non-fiction) for the entire 20th Century. He writes an essay leading into each decade's lists. His primary observation is that Americans read the same basic books over and over. For example, historical fiction dealing with the Civil War appears on the list via Winston Churchill (a Southern author, not the great British leader) in "The Crisis" in 1901; Margaret Mitchell, of course, made the list in 1936 and 1937 with "Gone With the Wind"; and in 1997, Charles Frazier's "Cold Mountain" rose to #2. Romantic novels, medical-themed novels, spiritually-themed novels, bodice-ripping novels (more and more explicit as the century advanced) all make continual reappearances. Books sell more and more despite the coming of the radio, then of movies, then of television, and then of the computer and the internet. It is great fun for a reader to peruse the lists, remembering books read and books-meant-to-be-read. I was born in 1948 so the books and authors from the second half of the century are pretty familiar. For no good reason I've decided to read the nine bestsellers from my birthyear that I hadn't read. (Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead" is easily the most prominent and I read it several years ago.) It will take some looking to find them, much less read them; but, it seems a silly, provocative task to undertake. Every reader will get something different from "Making the List" and therin lies the fun!

Michael Korda is not sanguine on the turn best-seller book publishing took in the 1990s. "At the end of the day,"Korda writes " the bestseller lists of the nineties made for relatively depressing reading, except to accountants. In fiction it became enormously difficult to break through the sheer weight of numbers generated by perhaps two dozen. or fewer, top writers who virtually dominated the list, and in nonfiction. a range of celebrities , merchandise, and self-help books that made it equally hard for all but the most exceptional book to get to the list." You will learn much about the publishing and bookselling industries-- as well as America's reading habits for the past 100 years -from this delightfully candid and witty work.. I admire many of Korda's books,- the thirteen that he's written (eight nonfiction, five novels) and more than a few of the hundreds that he's edited. (And this I can prove.! I spent seven years of my own life writing a biography of one of his famous authors.) However with all that Korda-(possessor of unsinkable intellect and energy, even in the face of prostate cancer-) has previously contributed to our insider knowledge of books and publishing , MAKING THE LIST is his most indispensable work. You might not think so at first because it is short and so much fun to read, but the distilled knowledge, observations and insights of his long career (which began in 1958) may leave you with (a) an enriched understanding of the relative place in the world of some of your favorite books and authors, (b) a savvy historic view of where modern publishing came from , and where it may or may not be going., (c)comprehension of those historic periods (by decade) which resemble one another culturally, and those which clash. ( For example, hot sex is pretty much gone from mainstream commercial novels right now. In this regard today's fiction could be at home in 1895, when the first list was started, and vice versa...) With Korda as your guide you will learn how the parameters of best-sellerdom rise and fall...and rise.: as the only editor with the distinction of having himself written a number one hardcover bestseller (on the annual bestseller list of Publishers Weekly) Korda reveals that this book ,POWER! ,earned its top spot with a net sale around 200,000 ,after returns, although there were 350,000 in print. Today the top nonfiction title would sell at least three or four times that amount.... In some eras nonfiction sold more than fiction, but nowadays (in case you haven't noticed) the brand name new-title-every -year novelists virtually have a "lockhold "on the list, often achieving hardcover sales in the millions....Thirty or forty years ago it was expected that the hardcover book business was almost terminal- except for libraries. Today, many books sell more in hardcover than in paperback. The price differential is small enough that readers don't want to wait. Korda closes MAKING THE LIST with the observ