[the book struggle] Stalking the best-seller list

Success leaves clues.

Some of you know that I am in the midst of writing a book.

More details will be shared later, but for now - the concept is this:

It’s a children’s book..but for adults.

In the same style as hard-core obsessed researcher Tim Ferriss…I’d like to get an edge on what will help me reach as many people - and sell as many books - as possible.

My team is putting together a research report with lists of the 50 top-selling young children's books (from babies to elementary school) of:

1. 2023 (so far)

2. 2022

3. 2021

4. 2020

5. Of all time

They’ll be using Amazon.com and maybe some additional data sources; creating Google Docs or Sheets for each year, and putting them in my Google Drive; and organizing each entry this way:

1. Copying and pasting the image of the front book cover; and

2. Putting the TITLE, AUTHOR, and PUBLISHER in bullet points, under the image

Some titles will repeat themselves…which is great, and they will be weighted.

Other weights will be applied to repeating publishers and authors.

After gathering this data, I’m going write a short report on similarities that I find among the top-selling books. And some of these criteria will include:

1. Style of illustration

2. Common publishers

3. Book sizes

4. Titles

5. Anything at all

6. Certain characters, animals, etc.

7. Story formats

I’m also asking my team to assess as well; and if you’re interested in helping, I’d appreciate as many perspectives as possible. Reply all and let me know!

The main goal is to find out what type of common characteristics do the best-selling children's books seem to have.

Some patterns might be explainable, and some won't; and even if I can’t explain them, I will still notate them.

I wrote this to build in public; to ask for your help, if you’re curious/interested; and, if this format of research works for you, you’re welcome to copy and use it for your own endeavors.

That’s it for now. Keep you posted!