Interesting study on the key to hit books

[Penny]

I found this article about a recent study very interesting and thought I'd share it with the group. Key to hit books discovered, study claims. It's an interesting notion and I have the impression that the scientists involved have a very clear idea of the limitations of their work. Still a fascinating study and I expect there will be more to come from this line of research.

[Sadie]

It's funny that I've had this one open on my desktop for days meaning to read: Scientists find secret to writing a best-selling novel. Same, same

[Melinda]

Less successful novels have a higher percentage of verbs? Not something I was expecting. Verbs seem pretty important, and writing advice is all about "use strong verbs"

[Stephen]

I think it's verbs that are telling rather than showing that seem to be the problem.

[DavidO]

I believe that the main problem is most of the books analyzed are very old and the style at that time is different than now.

[Kazza]

I'd take this with a (huge) pinch of salt. Analyzing books by their written style speaks nothing about the plot, the characters, etc, though I agree somewhat on the point of award-winning novels with low readability.