Forbes Literary Tastemakers

[Libra6Poe]

Excerpt:

To come up with our list of tastemakers, Forbes.com surveyed literary critics and industry insiders, polled our readers, tracked print media coverage over the last year through Factiva, tallied up the awards each author had won, and assessed their recent projects. Finally, we threw in a dash of our own expertise and took a long, hard look at the numbers (through figures collected by Nielsen's Bookscan) to determine each author's commercial success.

Earnings, of course, aren't the best yardstick for literary worth--Poe died penniless, and Kafka's best work wasn't even published until after he'd succumbed to tuberculosis--but they do provide authors with the freedom to write—and do--what he or she wants.

Here's the whole article: November 8, 2005 - oops! It's old!

I just ran across this when trying to find out about Flagg day...

The Tastemakers:

Spoiler

1. John Maxwell Coetzee
2. Don DeLillo
3. Joan Didion
4. Dave Eggers
5. Jonathan Safran Foer
6. Stephen King
7. Elmore Leonard
8. Philip Roth
9. J.K. Rowling
10. Zadie Smith

Check out the slide show to find out about their notable works & their 2005 YTD Domestic Book Sales.

 

[novella]

I'm a little confused by this, because I think of 'tastemakers' as trendsetting consumers, not producers. In other words, Oprah would be a big literary tastemaker, affecting so many people's choice of book to read.

Another person would be the editor of the Washington Post book review, the person who assigns reviews and chooses reviewers.

Another person might be the publisher at a major house, who has control over what kind of MSs to accept for publication and which to promote.

While these writers may be popular, I can't help think they have little control over public preference and book sales.

 

[Peder]

While these writers may be popular, I can't help think they have little control over public preference and book sales.

Novella,
Do you then really think that the content of what they write and how they write it has so little to do with their popularity?
Just asking. Not confronting. Not taking issue. Not nothing, except wondering.
Because I agree that "tastemaker" doesn't sound like quite the proper word for the context. Perhaps 'trend-setter" might be more accurate in terms of how the article highlights each author's overall accomplishments and the reasons for their selection.
In any event, I think this was a more interesting list than the NYT "25 greatest" that circulated through here to oblivion not so long ago. That was organized around books as I recall, whereas this one is organized around authors and their contributions to the world of literature in a more general sense. And in that more general sense, the omissions from the list are quite noticeable.
Overall, I'm intrigued that lists like these two have received so little notice and discussion here in a community of bookreaders.
However, I found the authors interesting to read about and their portraits fascinating to look at. That was excellent photography and they are interesting people. So,
Many thanks for the article Libra!
peder

 

[novella]

Novella,
Do you then really think that the content of what they write and how they write it has so little to do with their popularity?
Just asking. Not confronting. Not taking issue. Not nothing, except wondering.
Because I agree that "tastemaker" doesn't sound like quite the proper word for the context. Perhaps 'trend-setter" might be more accurate in terms of how the article highlights each author's overall accomplishments and the reasons for their selection.
In any event, I think this was a more interesting list than the NYT "25 greatest" that circulated through here to oblivion not so long ago. That was organized around books as I recall, whereas this one is organized around authors and their contributions to the world of literature in a more general sense. And in that more general sense, the omissions from the list are quite noticeable.
Overall, I'm intrigued that lists like these two have received so little notice and discussion here in a community of bookreaders.
However, I found the authors interesting to read about and their portraits fascinating to look at. That was excellent photography and they are interesting people. So,
Many thanks for the article Libra!
peder

Of course their writing affects their popularity. But to call them tastemakers implies that they directly influence buying and popularity trends, which as writers they do not.

As a related example, I would say that goat cheese has become far more popular than ever in the US. I would say the tastemakers involved in that are the chefs who serve it and the reviewers who review restaurant and the grocery store who stock it, but NOT the cheesemakers who produce it.

A designer may design a dress, but the person who chooses to wear it and make it look cool is the trendsetter. The designer may be a visionary producer, but that's not what drives the market at large.

Now, if people cared what Joan Didion reads and then go out an buy those books, then in that sense she could be considered a 'tastemaker.'

 

[Peder]

No quarrel about the inappropriateness of "tastemaker" in the context.