Time to Write

Need a Good Title for Your Non-Fiction Book or Newsletter?

In a previous post, I wrote about how the Oberlo Business Name Generator can be useful for coming up with a fictional name or a business that appears in your screenplay or novel. The same tool can be helpful if you're trying to come up with a good name for a non-fiction book or newsletter.

You just type in one word you'd like to have in the title. The Generator comes up with 100 combinations. 

For instance, I'm thinking of publishing a creativity newsletter, so I entered the word "Creativity." Here are some of the titles the Generator came up with, some more mainstream than others:

Power Creativity

Black Sheep Creativity

Creativity Precision

OneMan Creativity

Retina Creativity

Affinity Creativity

Creativity Signals

Simply Creativity

Jumpstart Creativity

Immersion Creativity

Scribe Creativity

High Voltage Creativity

Creativity Road

CreativityGram

Creativity Frontier

Creativity Fix

Creativity Driver

These could work equally well as titles for a book about creativity.

WANT SOMETHING LESS OBVIOUS?

If you want something less obvious, see whether any of the words that were combined with your keyword could work by themselves. In my example, "High Voltage," "Jumpstart," "Signals," or "Retina" could all work as trendier creativity newsletter titles, or as main titles for a book, and you could use a secondary title to connect it to creativity.

People DO judge a book by its cover - 3 bad examples

The stigma of self-publishing and assisted publishing (in which you pay a publisher to produce your book) is long gone. Many good and successful books have been self-published both traditionally and as ebooks. But one thing that seems to have persisted is the tradition of terrible covers.

People DO judge a book by its cover. If the cover is not inviting, they are unlikely to check out the rest of it.

I hope I'm not being cruel by including these three examples. Just to be clear, I'm not saying these books are bad in any way other than their cover design.  Their content may well be brilliant but I find the covers a turn-off. Let's take a look:

Any idea what this one might be about?

No, me neither.

It's actually a science fiction thriller. 

Less can be more, but in this case, it's less.

It reminds me of the joke, "Not only is the food terrible, the portions are way too small." In this case, not only is the type boring, it's way too small.

 

 

 

 

At least the title of this one gives you some clue as to the genre, but since the protagonist is an 11-year-old boy I assume it's geared to young readers. Do you think they'd be curious to turn to the first page?

Could the designer have made the secondary print any smaller? It says, "A boy trying to find his meaning in the universe unexpectedly saves it." Not a bad logline. Too bad you need a magnifying glass to read it. Ditto for the line telling us this is "The First Book in the Secret Agent Series."

 

 

Didn't ANYBODY notice that the image makes it hard to read the title and the name of the author? Making the text white would have solved that, although it wouldn't have made it a good cover.

Based on the title ("To Slight the Jacket Blue") and image, what kind of book do you think this is? 

My guess was poetry.

The blurb is, "When Ned is sent to the Caribbean to hunt pirates, he hopes to avenge the death of his best friend, Sam."

Pirates! Adventure! Danger!

Too bad all the cover says is, "Waves on a gloomy day."

These three are all from a company called fastpencil. Their design services include custom cover design for $299, Custom PLUS cover design for $599, and Premium Cover Design for $899. The covers of most of their books are case studies in what not to do. If any of the three authors above paid a penny for their cover designs they should ask for their money back.

 

 

 

 

 

When book blurbs go bad

The text on the back of your book or the blurb that publishers put in ads or promotions for your book can influence people to buy...or not.

In a mailing I received today I found a couple of examples of blurbs that leave a lot to be desired. Surprisingly, the books are by successful authors, published by a major publisher (HarperCollins). Here's one, for Born Bad by Marnie Riches:

Manchester’s criminal underworld is shaken to the core when gang leader Paddy O’Brien is found bleeding by the poolside of his sprawling Bramshott mansion. So begins a fierce battle for the South Side, with the leading Manchester gangsters taking the law into their own hands - even when they have to play dirty to win...

Wait a minute, isn't taking the law into their own hands what gangsters do all the time? And is it rare for them to play dirty? I'm sure the book is better than this description.

Here's another one, for The Secret of Orchard Cottage by Alex Brown:

April Wilson is hoping to piece herself together after the loss of her husband with a visit to her elderly great aunt, Edith. Arriving in the rural idyll of Tindledale, Edith seems to have lost interest in her home and the surrounding orchard completely, desperate to find out what happened to her sister who disappeared during WWII.

As April begins to unravel the mystery of the missing Winnie with the help of the enigmatic Matt, she slowly feels things coming to life again - but can Orchard Cottage work its magic on her too?

The second sentence makes it sound like Edith, not Alex, arrives in the rural idyll of Tindlledale. It seems strange that Edith is just now getting around to wanting to find out what happened to her sister, who disappeared during WWII. Finally, if Orchard Cottage is where Edith lives, its magic hasn't worked very well, since the old lady has lost interest in everything. And if Orchard Cottage isn't where Edith lives, where is it?

I'm sure the book explains all of these, but if the blurb is confusing we probably won't bother to buy.

It's likely that these blurbs were written by a junior staffer, but I hope the authors are paying attention and make some changes. 

 

Top prize of $1000 in humorous poetry contest

If you write funny poetry (on purpose) you may be interested in the Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest.

Entries are invited until April 1 and, unusually, there's no entry fee. 

Your poem can be published or unpublished and can run up to 250 lines. 

One submission per person, made online. 

They will also award a second prize of $250 and ten honorable mentions worth $100 each. Results will be announced on August 15, 2017.

Submit your poem here.

I seldom feature poetry contest because often the entry fees strike me as excessive for the typically modest prizes, so a contest with free entry and a large prize is a worthy exception. 

POETRY CONTESTS TO AVOID

Unfortunately, there are quite a few scams that target poets.

A common one is a contest in which you don't win but you get a commendation and the great news that they want to publish your entry in a compilation of the very best poems they received. In most cases they require you to purchase several copies in advance, in others they rely on you doing so to show your doubting relatives and friends that you've finally arrived.

These books are always vastly overpriced and you won't be impressed by the quality of the books or of many of the other poems.

Winningwriters.com features a useful list of contests and services to avoid or at least approach with caution. You'll find that list here.

Does dropping the price of your e-book work?

One of the main e-book marketing methods used by self-published authors as well as traditional publishers is a temporary price drop. Does it work, or does it just mean you make less money?

Author and scientist Dan Koboldt, who has done many useful marketing studies relating to self-publishing, has reported on the results when the e-book version of his novel, The Rogue Retrieval, was put on the promotional price of .99 cents for three weeks by HarperCollins. The usual price was $3.99.

BOOK PROMO SERVICES AND THEIR COSTS

During the promotion period, Koboldt used ten book promotion services, at an average cost of about $25 per.

These reach anything from 112,000 readers (BargainBooksy - $40) down to 4800 (BKnights on Fiverr - $10). He also took out an ad with Riffle Books ($30). 

Probably the top book promotion site is BookBub, but they are very selective about the books they highlight, and this time around they didn't choose his book.

Importantly, he also benefitted from being promoted in the HarperCollins daily e-mail to almost a million readers, and from being mentioned on their Twitter and Facebook channels. 

THE RESULTS

Koboldt breaks down the likely results from each of the promotional services but overall he figures he sold about 250 copies during the promotional period (actual sales figures won't come in for a couple of months).

He doesn't say how many he would have expected to sell during that period without such promotion but it's safe to say it would have been a lot fewer.

IS IT WORTH IT?

Probably the main benefit of this kind of promotion is visibility on the Amazon ebook lists and the possibility that some of those who buy will like your book enough to spread the word and to buy another one of your titles if you have more available; from a strictly financial standpoint, Koboldt will get less in royalties for those 250 copies than the $226 combined cost of the promotions.

The bottom line: if you're looking to build word of mouth, and have a long-term goal of establishing yourself as an author, this kind of promotion can help; if you're promoting only a single title, with no plans to release another in the foreseeable future, it may not be worth the money.

PS: Of course, one cheap way to promote your book is to mention it on your blog, as I do once in a while for my books, Your Writing Coach and Your Creative Writing Masterclass, both from Nicholas Brealey Publishing and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller. :)

 

 

The great children's ebook con trick

I've seen a lot of promotion recently for courses that purport to show you how to make loads of money writing children's books and selling them on Amazon.

One of them shows you have to use clip art or public domain art for the illustrations.

Another suggests you hire people on Fiverr.com to do the illustrations for you for five dollars each. 

Then you put your book on Amazon and wait for the money to roll in.

Prepare for a long wait. 

Children's books represent the arena in which ebooks have made the smallest impact.

Kids like holding books or sitting in their parents' laps while being read to from a traditional book.

Also, if you're very skilled maybe you can put together an attractive book with public domain illustrations or Fiverr art, but it's not easy. 

The biggest question is how you get people to become aware of your book so that somebody buys it. Just putting it on Amazon is like throwing a message in a bottle into the ocean. 

If you want to write a kids' book for fun or maybe as a present for your grandchildren, by all means go ahead. You can easily set it up as a print-on-demand book. Once in a very great while, such a book could take off. 

Just don't count on it, and don't spend a lot of money on a course that pretends success is practically guaranteed. 

When publishing meets television: a new approach, but is it a good one?

When pitching a movie or a TV series, writers sometimes characterize their project as "X" meets "Y"--as in, "Romeo and Juliet" meets "Lord of the Flies."

There's a new approach to books that might be described as "TV writing" meets "publishing."

New publisher Serial Box produces ebooks in 13 to 15 weekly episodes. The first one and the series bible is created by one writer, who is the equivalent of the Show Runner in TV. The team works out the complete storyline, then writers compose chapters, alternating so the assembly line keeps rolling.

Each episode takes about an hour to read and costs $1.99, or you can subscribe and pay $1.59 each, or buy an access pass for all the episodes for about $20. You get both text and audio versions.

The first publication is a dystopian YA novel with a premise that sounds pretty familiar: 23 teens wake up after the Apocalypse and have to figure out what happened--while also being hunted by machines. 

Wired.com quotes co-founder Molly Barton as saying that one of the ideas behind this format is that friends will find it easier to discuss the books because they will be reading them at the same time.

I can't say that as an author I'm very excited by this development; television necessarily is a collaborative medium, but in novels I value the author's individual voice. Of course, there have been book series before that were written by various authors under one pen name, and it didn't kill literature.

Even so, it'll be interesting to find out whether readers go for this format.

Related articles

If teen and Young Adult novels were realistic

Why you shouldn't write like (fill in name)

One director's take on "write what you know"

Summary books: parasites or time savers?

What do you think about summary books? I've noticed more and more of them popping up on Amazon lately. 

For instance, consider the book, Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges, by Amy Cuddy, 352 pages, £8.99 in the UK (about $12) and, unusually, more for the Kindle version (£9.99). Its ranking is 2,237 in books.

One summary version is by "Ant Hive Media," 30 pages. The price is £4.89 (about $6). Its ranking is 95,072.

The other is by "Instaread"and says it includes analysis, but still comes in at only 34 pages, for £5.23 for the paperback. Its ranking is 342,857.

I guess summary books could be useful for someone wanting to save time, but I can't help feeling they're feeding on somebody else's the hard. Shouldn't a percentage of the proceeds go to the original author?

 

 

 

 

Why book trailers are not a good idea for self-published fiction authors

I see that somebody is selling a course for self-published authors on how to make "Hollywood-style" book trailers. 

I don't think that's a very good idea. Reading a book is a different process from watching a movie. A trailer is a sample of the full movie-viewing experience, it's not a sample of the full reading experience.

Authors of non-fiction have it easier. If, for instance, your book is about cooking, you can make a trailer that includes some cooking tips. Viewers will know that if they like those tips, they'll get more like them in your book.

If your book is about space travel, you can build a few fun facts about that in your trailer. If they buy your book, they'll learn more about that topic.

However, if you've written a novel, there's not the same kind of link. Yes, if it's a mystery in which the protagonist is a chef, you could include a cooking tip but people don't buy fiction for tips. Similarly, viewers wouldn't read a sci-fi novel primarily for facts.

I've seen book trailers in which authors are interviewed (or interview themselves) about what inspired them, their research process, etc. Unfortunately, people are likely to find that interesting only if they've already enjoyed the book or know you from other things you've written. Sorry to be brutal, but otherwise nobody cares. 

Even non-fiction authors who make a trailer for their book are left with the big question: how do you get people to watch it? Put it on YouTube? Here's a little quiz:

In 2014, Youtube said 300 hours of new videos were uploaded every:

A. Week

B. Day

C. Minute

You probably guessed right--300 hours every minute! That's not to say you can't get your target audience to watch your YT video, just that it's not easy.

The bottom line: if you're a self-published author of fiction, there are better ways to spend your money than learning how to make a book trailer or on a trailer itself. 

 

 

Related articles

How can authors promote their novels without tweeting or blogging?

Why social media doesn't work for unknown novelists

The best children's books according to the Guardian authors panel

If you write children's books or are looking for a good book for a child (maybe early Christmas shopping?), here are the ones a panel of authors judging children's fiction for The Guardian (UK) selected as the best. Even if you're writing for adults, it could be useful to check these out to see how authors are getting the attention of younger readers.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/nov/19/david-almond-wins-guardian-childrens-fiction-prize 

"David Almond has won the Guardian children’s fiction prize with a retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice set in the north east of England, A Song for Ella Grey.

Guardian children's fiction prize book club: A Song for Ella Grey by David Almond

Told in lyrical, dream-like prose, Almond revisits a story that he said “has pestered me ever since I began to write” - the legend of music-maker Orpheus descending to the underworld to bring his love back to life. Set in contemporary Tyneside, Almond’s version features inseparable best friends and sixth-formers Claire and Ella. Through Claire’s narration we learn how Orpheus entrances Ella and the terrible tragedy that unfolds as a result.

The book beat novels by Kate Saunders, Frances Hardinge and Sally Nicholls to win the only children’s book award judged by authors - find out more about the brilliant books on the shortlist and the longlist!

Back to A Song for Ella Grey, and you don’t need to just take the judges’ word for it - here’s what three of our award-winning Young Critics think: 

Megan Foley:

Almond’s writing really is something to envy. It is truly magical; his descriptions alone transport you from your warm room to the blustery beaches of the North. The words seem to leap off the page and spark to life within you. As I read, I got so completely absorbed in the writing that I forgot where I was and what I was doing. I only thought of the story and what was going to happen.

Charlotte Walden:

The beautiful poetic language in this book is unmistakably written by David Almond. The power in the short, often repeated sentences sends a chill down your spine and wakens your imagination so that you are drawn in by every convincing word.

Sara El-Khamlichi:

I think that this book is not just a “book”, but a literary masterpiece.

------

the four shortlisted authors in the Guardian children’s fiction prize for 2015:

 Photograph: PR company handout

Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders (Faber)
E Nesbitt’s classic Five Children and It gains an outstanding sequel, with the ingenious conceit of transposing the cosy Victorian setting for the eve of the First World War, yielding devastating results. Enthralling, witty and often unbearably moving, an elegy to not only a lost generation but the first golden age of children’s literature.

A Song for Ella Grey by David Almond (Hodder)
An intense, windswept re-working of Orpheus and Eurydice that reverberates with intensity and passion, as beautifully presented as it is written. The transformative potential of art and the imagination radiates from every page of this book, which is as short, intense and all consuming as the love story it describes.

The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge (Macmillan) 
A compelling fantasy spun from one mesmerising idea: what if telling lies gave you the power to discover other people’s secrets? This gothic yarn of Victorian fossil hunters gone bad features an unforgettable young heroine, who fearlessly takes on monsters of the present and the past to build herself a better life.

An Island of our Own by Sally Nicholls (Scholastic)
This is a joyful Treasure Island-style mystery for the Instagram generation. A loveable young pair don’t face pirates as they seek their late auntie’s buried hoard, but more contemporary devices - from crowdsourcing clues to metal detectors - winningly deployed in this funny and tender exploration of what makes a family."

 Photograph: PR IMAGE

 

Link to the longlist: http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/gallery/2015/jul/10/the-guardian-childrens-fiction-award-2015-longlist

 

Robot authors are waiting in the wings

A report on Cnet news says that an artificial intelligence program called Sheherazade is able to create interactive choose-your-own adventure fiction.

It's not quite ready to kick us out of our chairs yet. According to a paper published by the program's creators, "At this point, human-authored narrative still remains the most cost-effective means of generating an interactive narrative experience."

Sure, because cost-effectiveness is how to judge fiction.  Actually, given how little most writers earn, it's hard to imagine anything being more cost-effective.

Still, we can't be complacent. Here's how the paper sees the future:

"Open interactive narrative shows promise in reducing authorial burden in the near future."

Authorial burden? I didn't even realize that writing was a burden...

It goes on, "Sheherazade-IF and the lessons we learned in creating and evaluating it serve as a first step in creating human-quality interactive narrative with almost no human authoring required."

What will we writers do with all that free time once AI has freed us from the heavy lifting involved in making up stories? Perhaps join a conspiracy to destroy the robots?

The Language Police are on the move (don't mention peanuts)

There's an interesting new book out from the US about the (self) censorship that takes place with textbooks in an effort not to offend anybody (and therefore not lose any potential sales). The book is called The Language Police. The following is not a parody...unfortunately. Here's a part of a review--the committee they talk about was made up of counselors, diversity experts, etc:

"The committee flagged many seemingly innocuous passages gathered by the Board as potentially offensive or biased: an essay on peanuts because some children are allergic to peanuts; a biography of the designer of the Mount Rushmore monument because the site is considered sacred by some Native Americans; a legend about dolphins because it reflects a regional bias against children who don't live near the sea; an inspirational story about a blind mountain climber because it suggests that a blind person might find it harder to climb a mountain than a sighted one. The examples go on. Even Aesop's fable, "The Fox and the Crow", was flagged as sexist because a male fox flatters a female crow; to gain approval, the gender of the animals had to be changed. The review committee also gave the Board a list of topics to be avoided. These included abortion, evolution, expensive consumer goods, magic, personal appearance, politics, religion, unemployment, unsafe situations, weapons and violence -- among others."

In the midst of this huge heap of ridiculousness, the bit I highlighted strikes me as the most ridiculous...so now having kids read about something with which they may not be personally familiar is discrimination? I think we used to call it "learning." We were so insensitive!

A peek into the crowded field of not so good self-published books

The great thing about self-publishing is that anybody can do it...the bad thing about it is so many people are doing it that it's hard to find the good stuff (or to help people find it, if you're the author). 

For example, below are a few descriptions, written by the authors, of publications available for sale at smashwords.com. I have not included the names of the authors or their publications because it's not my intention to embarrass anybody, just to show that even the short descriptions suggest that these stories or books have not been edited for grammar or punctuation. 

    Sadie, a quiet 11 year-old girl is loved by doting yet strict parents who work hard to make a better life for their only child who is friendless and suffers from image problems. Follow Sadie as she meets Clawson, discover her strengths and disappear into thin air from a home locked from the inside.

    Ghosts or spirits of Houlton's founders who reside in Evergreen cemetery appear to two local adolescent boys. The ghosts are not threatening, demonic, gruesome, grizzly, or have any intention of interfering with the teenagers' pursuits. Conversely, the ghosts eagerly interact with the youngsters and respond to all of their questions regarding the growth of their community, hardships suffered by (description cut off by length restriction at the site).

Sustainable (Green) Living is a new way living with nature without any adverse effect on it. This type of living stresses upon lesser utilization of natural resources. Sustainable Living decreases the cost living and increase the peace in life. 

    Her home was attacked and her Goblin master and husband was killed. Seeing the flames consume her husband she chose to die at his side but instead of dying she was pulled from the raging fire and forced to live by a Seelie Jinn. Perhaps the same one that killed her husband and left her heart and her body scared forever. (I'm guessing she meant scarred, but I could be wrong.)

    She is the key to stopping a war that has lasted a millennia... And he is the key to her downfall.

    In this intense short story by [name ommited], Charlie Task is the unnamed protagonist. He's taking care of business, doing what he can, using his special skills to remove blights from the world.

There's nothing wrong with people getting enjoyment from writing these and sharing them with their friends and family, but putting a price on them suggests that they meet a certain level of professionalism, which they clearly don't. This makes it more likely that readers, tired of poorly written works by new writers, will prefer to buy ebooks by authors with whom they are already familiar.  

Writing a non-fiction book? The sales figures contain a lesson.

The sales of paperback non-fiction have been declining and it's easy to assume that this is the result of the advent of e-books. However, figures provided by Neilsen Book at a recent digital publishing conference suggests that the decline started before that.

The most likely reason is that so much information is available free on the internet. People who formerly might have bought a reference book look to Wikipedia and other online sources now.

I think this suggests an important lesson for anybody who is writing a non-fiction book, namely that you have to make sure that either the content or the presentation of your material is different from what people can find easily on the net.

Here are a few ideas on how you could differentiate your non-fiction book. 

DECIDE: BEAT THEM OR JOIN THEM?

Authors have responded to the rise of internet content in two ways: the "if you can't beat them, join them" strategy, which entails having bite-size content, colorful graphics, sidebars with comments that resemble Tweets, etc.; or the "do what they can't/don't do" approach, going in-depth and being unashamed about demanding the concentration of the reader.

I believe that books that aren't clearly in one camp or the other are less likely to succeed.

BRING YOUR PERSONALITY

Bring your personality to the subject. The one thing you can offer that nobody else can is your unique experience or perspective. When appropriate, include anecdotes and other personal touches. 

A good example of this is the Freakonomics books, which make a traditionally dry topic (economics) entertaining and bring in the authors' experiences and views. The first book was subtitled: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything.

FOCUS ON THE DIFFERENCES

In your marketing, including the title, cover image, blurb, etc., reflect what makes your book different. Again, Freakonomics had a cover very different from that of most books on economics.

THINK ABOUT SEQUELS

Finding people who buy your book is hard work, so think ahead to how you can keep them and what else might interest them. It could be a sequel or just a related topic. If you put your website address in the book and offer the reader an incentive (e.g., an extra chapter) for signing up, you'll have a list of people to whom to market your next book. If you already have the next book in mind you can mention it in the current one. 

Here's an example, continuing on from Freakonomics, of a book that gives more of the same:

Then they went on to a book that uses what went before but goes off in the direction of self-development:

CONSIDER OTHER FORMATS

Rather than assuming that a book is the best format for your project, consider whether other ways of presenting it might be better or easier to market. For example, although I've written a number of books on writing, my next project will be an online course. That allows me to integrate videos, audios, quizzes, etc. I will also be offering free webinars to people who buy the book, which will allow me to interact, answer their questions, and of course let them know of future projects that could be of interest to them. This creates a product with added value to the user, and also allows me to charge more than I would for a book.

BE CREATIVE

All of these tips have one thing in common, namely that they encourage you to be creative about how you approach a marketplace in flux. 

 

 

 

 

 

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What genre did people read most in 2014?

Apple has released a list of the best-selling paid fictionebook titles in iBookstore in 2014. Other sellers will be revealing their own lists shortly. 

Fiction (paid):

1. The Fault in Our Stars, John Green (Children & Teens)
2. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn (Mysteries & Thrillers)
3. Insurgent, Veronica Roth (Children & Teens)
4. Allegiant, Veronica Roth (Children & Teens)
5. Divergent, Veronica Roth (Children & Teens)
6. The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt (Fiction & Literature)
7. The Target, David Baldacci (Mysteries & Thrillers)
8. The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd (Fiction & Literature)
9. The Husband's Secret, Liane Moriarty (Fiction & Literature)
10. Fifty Shades of Grey, E L James (Romance)
11. The A Song of Ice and Fire Series, George R. R. Martin (Sci-Fi & Fantasy)
12. If I Stay, Gayle Forman (Children & Teens)
13. Personal, Lee Child (Mysteries & Thrillers)
14. Sycamore Row, John Grisham (Mysteries & Thrillers)
15. Fifty Shades Darker, E L James (Romance)
16. Unlucky 13, Maxine Paetro,James Patterson (Mysteries & Thrillers)
17. The Silkworm, Robert Galbraith (Mysteries & Thrillers)
18. The Maze Runner, James Dashner (Children & Teens)
19. The Heist, Daniel Silva (Mysteries & Thrillers)
20. Fifty Shades Freed, E L James (Romance)
21. Big Little Lies, Liane Moriarty (Fiction & Literature)
22. Missing You, Harlan Coben (Fiction & Literature)
23. Act of War, Brad Thor (Fiction & Literature)
24. Field of Prey, John Sandford (Mysteries & Thrillers)
25. Top Secret Twenty-One, Janet Evanovich (Mysteries & Thrillers)

In terms of genres, it's no contest: mysteries and thrillers win handily. Romance is in second place. In children's and teen's, it's dystopian adventure--although I've read that this may have run its course.