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Q&A What makes a bestseller - Writing or Setting?

Neither of those. They can certainly make a novel enjoyable. But make it a best-seller...I'm not sure. For instance, I've never heard people say that they want to read a novel because it's set in N...

posted 9y ago by Alexandro Chen‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T04:28:34Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/18253
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Alexandro Chen‭ · 2019-12-08T04:28:34Z (over 4 years ago)
Neither of those. They can certainly make a novel enjoyable. But make it a best-seller...I'm not sure. For instance, I've never heard people say that they want to read a novel because it's set in New York or Paris or Narnia.

As for the writing...okay maybe this one is more important. However, the term is a little ambiguous. What do you mean by writing? The quality of the prose? Whether it's funny?

I think the key element to write a best-seller is to make it a page-turner. I've never read or heard of a page-turner that wasn't a best-seller.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2015-07-17T04:24:18Z (almost 9 years ago)
Original score: 3