Time’s 100 Novels Ranked By Amazon Sales

Posted on by afrilondrums

101 Books

One of my favorite parts of Amazon is the Amazon sales rank. It’s just a quick gauge of how the public generally receives a book.

While sales don’t always indicate a novel’s quality or critical reception (see Twilight), they’re sometimes a decent indicator. So because I have tons of free time (I don’t, really), I thought I’d dig up the Amazon sales ranking for all of the Time Magazine 100 novels. Then, throw them all in a spreadsheet and see how they rank.

Let’s take a look at how the Time 100 novels rank by sales on Amazon. Note: The book’s overall ranking is the number to the right.

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Fun with fiction

Posted on by afrilondrums

Snowflakes in a Blizzard

As a career journalist, the term “fiction” always made me a little uncomfortable.

After all, that’s the last thing you want to see beneath your byline in a newspaper or magazine, because fiction there translates into … lying.

Indeed, that was always my comeback to people who accused me of “making up” elements of a story.

“If I could do that, I’d be writing novels,” I’d say.

But I didn’t. I could never really see the point, although I enjoyed reading novels by other writers.

All this changed, however, one morning in 1993, when I woke up and decided to create a work of fiction about the newspaper business.

“Where did that come from?” I asked my unseen muse.

There was no answer. Still, I enthusiastically tore into the project. I spent a week at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, a writers’ retreat, and banged out 20 chapters…

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My two cents on publishing

Posted on by afrilondrums

Snowflakes in a Blizzard

OK, I’ve published three books in my writing career. Two were self published, the latest — my first novel — was put out by a “real” publisher, but under an agreement called “hybrid publishing” (you kick in a little money, they match it).

In other words, I’m not exactly an expert on the book business. My primary character flaw in these matters has always been a lack of patience. I probably could have found a publisher for one of my self published books, but felt that the information in it was fresh, and I didn’t want it to go stale while I waited to find my “sold mate.” Maybe it’s the newspaper reporter in me that thinks: “Just write it and get it out there before anybody else does.”

I have learned a few things along the way, though, And as I was responding to an e-mail from a friend…

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