Success with Style: Using Writing Style to Predict the Success of Novels

Predicting the success of literary works is a curious question among publishers and aspiring writers alike. We examine the quantitative connection, if any, between writing style and successful literature. Based on novels over several different genres, we probe the predictive power of statistical stylometry in discriminating successful literary works, and identify characteristic stylistic elements that are more prominent in successful writings. Our study reports for the first time that statistical stylometry can be surprisingly effective in discriminating highly successful literature from less successful counterpart, achieving accuracy up to 84%. Closer analyses lead to several new insights into characteristics of the writing style in successful literature, including findings that are contrary to the conventional wisdom with respect to good writing style and readability.