Thinking About the Principles of Creating a Hit Book

Once again, this is Soichi Furukawa from Furukawa Shobo.

It has been 22 years since I joined a publishing company and became an editor.
I have worked on various books until now.

Among them are:

• Books that sold exactly as expected

• Books that were disappointing

• Books I didn't expect much from but sold well

• Books that didn't sell as I thought they would

and so on; I have gained experience in creating many different kinds of books.

Judging what will sell is truly difficult.

“Hey, wait a minute, shouldn't you have avoided making books that didn't sell as expected?”

You might think that, but there were times I created them while thinking,
“The possibility of it selling is not zero.”In fact, the publishing world is full of,


“I can't believe that book sold so well!”
moments. It's a story from over 10 years ago, but I heard that a certain super bestseller that surpassed 1 million copies was only greenlit because of a single condition set by a famous author.In other words, without that condition, that super bestseller might never have seen the light of day.
That just goes to show how unpredictable it is what will become a massive hit.

If every publishing house had someone with a keen eye who could judge with high probability what would or wouldn't sell, I think that person would be on a fast track to success just for that.

What are my personal principles for a hit book?

“So, what about you?”

Well, I will speak honestly from my heart.

Unfortunately, it seems I am not an editor who can create bestsellers on purpose.

To use a baseball analogy,
people who can create bestsellers on purpose are those who can always aim for a home run,
with the mindset that “a failed home run attempt is a hit.”
In that case, I am the type who believes,

“A home run is an extension of a hit,”and I am the type who, when trying to make contact, happens to hit the sweet spot of the bat and unexpectedly gets a home run.Therefore, unlike the general way of creating bestsellers, my personal principles for a hit book might seem modest.
Still, I hope those who are interested will listen.
Let's begin!

A different mindset from aiming for a bestseller

To begin with, what number of copies constitutes a bestseller?

In the world of business book editing, where 10,000 copies is considered a hit, I view anything over 100,000 copies as a bestseller.
So, what kind of book is a business book bestseller with over 100,000 copies? It is a book with an incredibly broad target audience.

Let me use the example of when I planned and conceived the book “Habits of People Who Do Things Immediately vs. People Who Can't,” which recorded over 300,000 copies.
At the time, I read many reader postcards, and the age groups and demographics were truly wide, ranging from junior high students to housewives and people over 60.

However, even for this book, I personally just narrowed down the target audience and thought up the plan so that the target audience would be interested.
Well, thanks to the work of the sales department and the company setting up a sales expansion system, it just happened that many readers ended up reading it.

On the other hand, editors who successfully aim for bestsellers often have an editorial policy of,

“deliberately not narrowing down the target audience.”


They also don't narrow down the title with phrases like “Starting at 40...” or “For so-and-so...” to say “This book is for you,” in order to get as many people as possible to pick it up.

As I said earlier, if the target audience isn't broad, it won't become a bestseller.
However, if you don't think through the book meticulously—including the author's attributes, content, and word sense for catchphrases and titles—so that it is supported by many readers, it could end up being a book that reaches no one and just doesn't sell.

As a result of aiming for a bestseller, there is even a possibility that,
it sells only 10% of what was expected, and 90% remains unshipped, just sleeping in a warehouse.Naturally, as an editor, if you keep creating books that don't sell at all, you will lose your seat.

Yes, my principles for a hit can also be called a method to minimize the risk of such a crushing defeat.

• Narrow down the target audience

• Make it clear who the book is for through the title and catchphrase

There are still many other things, but I cherish these two.

I would love to talk more and more, but that's all for today.
I will talk about this again!