Perennial vs Bestseller: The Writer's Dilemma
SUMMARY
There is a difference between bestsellers and perennial books. Bestsellers are often books that are popular only for a moment and forgotten soon after. In contrast, perennial books address the state of human nature in universal terms that can apply to humanity still within whatever current age. The decision to write either a bestseller or a perennial book is up to the writer. While bestsellers may make more money in the short term, perennial books will likely become timeless classics and sell more copies in the long run. Every author must choose their path, and there is no right or wrong answer.
EXPANDED DISCUSSION
It’s easy for writers to get caught up in ‘bestsellers,’ a classification for something that makes a poof for a moment and then is relegated, many of them, to what the Germans call Wegwerfliteratur, or ‘throw away literature,’ that is discarded and then forgotten in the literary canon nearly as soon as the last page is read, and the book is closed. I’m distinguishing between bestsellers (those that appear on national or local lists) and books that sell many copies (maybe we will call these books perennials). Using these definitions, bestsellers (those on lists) are some of the most accessible books to buy at discount rates from used bookstores. No one wants them. Yet, for writers, there is a mystique that the writer wants to be one (a [whatever] bestselling author), even beyond the desire to write a book that will last for ages (a perennial) and will probably sell more in its life than a bestseller will sell in its brief premortem. There seems to be a bit of irony in that. You can make more money with a good book than a bestseller. (Compare maybe ten thousand copies needed to be sold to be a New York Times bestseller and a slow-selling book that sells nearly four million copies.) History has proven this repeatedly. Yet, as authors, we still chase that flame like mindless and relentless moths. Is it good business practice? Or is it ego? Or is it the desire to write great literature? Only each writer can know what the answer is for him.
Though a bestseller and a perennial can rarely be found in the same book, I think writers need to contemplate the peculiarity of bestsellers. Books that make the bestseller list are ‘headline books.’ I get this term from ‘newspaper headlines,’ which are relevant now but only at that moment. Bestsellers are of their culture…at that moment. Once society, interests, crisis, and curiosity have moved onward, these books, like yesterday’s newspaper headlines, likewise lose their gloss and end up, as I’ve mentioned before, at McKay’s discount bookstore, selling for pennies on the original dollar. This is opposed to the perennial book that addresses not the times but the state of human nature in universal terms that can apply, even if dated, to humanity still within whatever current age. This book, the perennial, may not be a bestseller, though it can create ‘bestselling authors.’ It simply takes longer to get there. Every author must pick their yin or yang, though, as I mentioned in the first sentence of this paragraph, on rare occasions (infrequent), a perennial will also be what we call a bestseller.
Every writer needs to make their choice, but also every writer needs to consider where they want to find themselves at the end of, say, a decade in book sales and renown. One is to chase the headlines; the other is to pursue the trials and tribulations of constant humanity; the rare combination is when the writer can pull off both. Ben Jonson said of Shakespeare that Shakespeare wrote ‘not for an age but for all time.’ At last count, estimates put it that William Shakespeare has sold four billion copies. A New York Times bestselling author’s book I just read because I was asked to write a review has sold a little over five thousand copies and was on the charts, then off. As you write, ask yourself, which of these authors is laughing their way to the bank and into posterity? Every author can make that choice. There is no right or wrong answer other than a title to brag about or sales to make one comfortable for a lifetime.
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