Colleen Hoover owns the list
and why it matters
I first saw the 2022 print bestsellers list in the January 9, 2023 print copy of Publishers Weekly (online here) and while I wasn’t surprised, I WAS disappointed.
I’m not sure why I was even disappointed, since I saw the weekly lists every single week and knew this would be coming. But just seeing it so starkly here is jarring. You read that right in the chart - Colleen Hoover has EIGHT of the top 25 titles and she sold at least 14.3 million copies in 2022.
I’m not a Hoover fan, but I certainly don’t begrudge her the success. The issue I have with her dominating the bestseller list is that an author does not sell this many books simply by being a good or even a prolific writer ~ and we can definitely debate all day long whether Hoover is a good writer. The Colleen Hoover phenomenon is due, in my professional opinion, to the current publishing and retail environment that values easy sales over offering a diversity in titles to readers. BookTok has contributed greatly to Hoover’s success too, to be sure, but BookTok didn’t drop the books into big box stores all over the country.
Publishers of Hoover’s books know they need to do almost zero work publicizing her work ~ her fans and social media will do it all for free. Therefore, since the engine is already working for them, it’s all win and all profit. Big box stores want books that will sell fast and for cheap ~ highly commercial titles. What’s more commercial than an author with a built-in free marketing machine? And so the cycle goes.
Readers market the books for free - books sell well - big box stores stock them and sell them for cheaper than most new books can afford to be sold for - books are in front of occasional readers - books are purchased ~ readers want to be part of the hype machine, so they post on social media about the books. And so on. Hoover and her publishers and the big box stores win. Readers lose.
What about discovery? What about occasional readers ever having a chance to have a lesser known title in front of them for big box prices? That’s the disservice this cycle does to readers and authors. If a reader is only buying one or two books a year and doesn’t use a library on a regular basis, their exposure to other titles is severely limited. What responsibility does the publishing industry have to ensure that a wide variety of titles and authors are in front of readers? Well, capitalism would say zero responsibility, but that doesn’t sit right with me and shouldn’t sit right with readers and other authors.
Hoover may be self-deprecating and just like the rest of us, but the controversy surrounding her work is wide-spread. I don’t care who reads her books, but I do care that other titles are getting so much less publicity and shelf space than they deserve. If you’re a Hoover fan, I beg you to try something else too. Branch out a bit! Analyze WHY you love her work and then look to broaden your reading horizons. Read Hoover AND other authors too. And then share about them just as much as you share about CoHo please.
Titles I have read and loved that offer all the drama of Colleen Hoover’s work:
A few more Colleen Hoover read-alike lists:
Thanks for stopping by!
