New York Times Article Review
By Alexandra Alter
Oct. 9, 2022
βHow Colleen Hoover Rose to Rule the Best-Seller Listβ
βWith legions of devoted fans and a knack for high-voltage emotional drama, Hoover has sold more than 20 million books. And sheβs done it her way.β
Excerpt from βIT ENDS WITH USβ Colleen Hoover:
ββ¦What brought you to Boston?β
βMy residency. And my sister lives here.β He taps his foot and says, βRight beneath us, actually. Married a tech-savvy Bostonian and they bought the entire top floor.β
I look down. βThe entire top floor?β
He nods. βLucky bastard works from home. Doesnβt even have to change out of his pajamas and makes seven figures a year.β
Lucky bastard, indeed.
βWhat kind of residency? Are you a doctor?β
He nods. βNeurosurgeon. Less than a year left of my residency and then itβs official.β
Stylish, well spoken, and smart. And smokes pot. If this were an SAT question, I would ask which one didnβt belong.
βShould doctors be smoking weed?β
He smirks. βProbably not. But if we didnβt indulge on occasion, there would be a lot more of us taking the leap over these ledges, I can promise you that.β
Heβs facing forward again with his chin resting on his arms. His eyes are closed now, like heβs enjoying the wind against his face. He doesnβt look as intimidating like this.
βYou want to know something that only the locals know?β
βOf course,β he says, bringing his attention back to me.
I point to the east. βSee that building? The one with the green roof?β
He nods.
βThereβs a building behind it on Melcher. Thereβs a house on top of the
building. Like a legit house, built right on the rooftop. You canβt see it from the street, and the building is so tall that not many people even know about it.βHe looks impressed. βReally?β
I nod. βI saw it when I was searching Google Earth, so I looked it up. Apparently a permit was granted for the construction in 1982. How cool would that be? To live in a house on top of a building?β
βYouβd get the whole roof to yourself,β he says.
I hadnβt thought of that. If I owned it I could plant gardens up there. Iβd have an outlet.
βWho lives there?β he asks.
βNo one really knows. Itβs one of the great mysteries of Boston.β
He laughs and then looks at me inquisitively. βWhatβs another great mystery of Boston?β
βYour name.β As soon as I say it, I slap my hand against my forehead. It sounded so much like a cheesy pickup line; the only thing I can do is laugh at myself.He smiles. βItβs Ryle,β he says. βRyle Kincaid.β
I sigh, sinking into myself. βThatβs a really great name.β
βWhy do you sound sad about it?β
βBecause, Iβd give anything for a great name.β
βYou donβt like the name Lily?β¦β
βIt Ends With Usβ by Colleen Hoover
Her top-selling book, βIt Ends With Us,β a drama about a florist who falls for a brooding, abusive neurosurgeon, came out six years ago, but reappeared on the best-seller list in 2021 and has remained a fixture there: It's currently No. 1 on The New York Times paperback list and has sold four million copies.
The New York Times article starts:
Colleen Hoover has sold more books this year than Dr. Seuss. Sheβs sold more books than James Patterson and John Grisham β combined.
To say sheβs currently the best-selling novelist in the United States, to even compare her to other successful authors who have landed several books on the best seller lists, fails to capture the size and loyalty of her audience.
She holds seven of the top 10 spots on The New York Timesβs paperback fiction best-seller list, a stunning number of simultaneous best sellers from a single author.
She has sold 8.6 million print books this year alone β more copies than the Bible, according to NPD BookScan.
Colleen has 1.1 million followers onΒ TikTok, where theΒ #ColleenHooverΒ hashtag has had more than 2.4 billion views. Β
Look at the top 10 Paperback Trade Fiction books on the NYTimes list. https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/trade-fiction-paperback/
This weekβs Best Sellers:
I canβt say that I am a book-a-holic, or a fan of any fiction really, but my wife is always reading James Patterson, Stuart Woods, Michael Connelly and so on. Still, neither of us had ever heard of Colleen Hoover before reading this NY Times article: (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/09/books/colleen-hoover.html)
Colleen Hoover is a novelist who started by writing in the Young Adult category just 10 years ago. Her first book was titled βSlammedβ.
She is eclectic. Styles of her writing include romances, sexy thrillers, a ghost story, young adult, novels about abuse, and poverty. She says she wants to βbrandβ herself as βColleen Hooverβ, instead of being wedged into a specific writing style.
Her fans call her CoHo and refer to themselves as CoHorts. And her popularity has skyrocketed in the last few months.
Why do people like these books?
People say the characters are relatable, honest, real and genuine. She uses regular people and puts them in difficult and steamy situations. In fact, there seems to be a lot of sexy stuff.
She doesnβt use big words. All her novels are between 80,000 and 110,000 words. So they are easy to read. Obviously the writing moves the reader forward to the next part.
My wife really likes James Pattersonβs short chapters. His chapter word count is around 600 words. The average for fiction books is around 2,500 words per chapter. Total word count for the typical Patterson book is 70,000 words.
By contrast, the book βIt Ends With Usβ is 385 pages, has 35 chapters with an average of 3,200 words / chapter. The book has approximately 115,000 words.
There have been a lot of articles in the last week or so about Colleen and her books. Here are a few of the articles to learn more about this phenom:
Oh, and Colleen has imposter syndrome, just like most of us: https://fortune.com/2022/10/11/author-colleen-hoover-deals-with-imposter-syndrome/
Despite 1.1 million TikTok followers and 20 million books sold, bestselling author Colleen Hoover says she has βthe worst case of impostor syndromeβ
10 Best Colleen Hoover Books Ranked, According To Goodreads
βNever seen anything like itβ: how Colleen Hooverβs normcore thrillers made her Americaβs bestselling author
Why We Canβt Stop Reading Colleen Hooverβs Trauma-Filled Novels
Who in the World Is Colleen Hoover? Meet the Author Dominating the Bestseller List
Colleen Hoover is queen of the best sellers list. Who is she and why are her books so popular?
Twitter: https://twitter.com/colleenhoover :
Itβs interesting to see what books and authors are popular.. Have you heard of Colleen before?
Thanks for reading. Peace!
Wow what a wild world Iβve never heard of her either. Whatβs the point of having 7 NYT best sellers at once if no one has heard of you? Iβm going back to bed.
I have never heard of Colleen before. I used to read a lot of books. I like James Patterson's NYPD Red series. It's good to know how many words James Patterson's books are. I always wondered how I could find that out. Several years back, I started writing some fiction and the highest word count I'm at so far is 50,000. It's funny you would list your wife likes Stuart Woods. I read 49 of his books before he ticked me off. In one of his books, he listed my hometown in the story. Seeing as it was an area which I thought no one knew existed, I was curious how he knew about it. I sent him an email and he sent back a snarky response. From that day forward, I never read his books + they just seemed to be getting out there and not what would happen in real life.