A bit of ‘science’ to help authors wishing to top the bestseller lists has surfaced over the past week. The people behind Lulu.com, the self-publishing website, have created a gizmo called Titlescorer. After analyzing the titles of the hardback fiction books on the New York Times bestseller list for the past sixty years, they say they are able to gauge if the name of your grand opus has what it takes to make it big.

Try the Titlescore here. Taking one recent A&B bestseller as an example, Ghost Town has a 22.9% chance of being a bestselling title. While The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo scores only 10.2%, so I think a bit more work might be in order…

Lesley Crooks, Sale & Digital Manager