Speaking of Da Vinci

I once promised myself that I would steer clear of Da Vinci Code-related stories. Because there are so many. Oh my lord, I check Google News alerts and they are everywhere, what with the movie due in theaters this Friday. But never mind my antipathy because I found an angle that actually makes sense from a publishing standpoint: why is this book – now read, or at least owned, by 1 in 5 Americans, according to a new study – different from all other books, to get all Passover on everybody?

One writer who has some good answers is James Hall, crime writer and professor at Florida International University. He tells the South Florida Sun-Sentinel’s Chauncey Mabe about his newest project, which attempts to boil down bestsellers to “12 key points.” And according to Hall, DVC has all 12. One of the critical ones is fact content, as he puts it. ike the books of James Michener, Arthur Hailey and Tom Clancy, The Da Vinci Code is full of historical data Brown claims is true. It doesn’t matter that Brown’s assertions have been proven wrong again and again. “The less information there is in a novel, the more likely it will be literary,” Hall says, “although all literary novels that hit the best-seller list do have high nonfiction content. Think of The Poisonwood Bible or Cold Mountain.”

But even if all 12 points are satisfied, was Brown deliberate in trying to craft a bestseller? Hall disagrees. “The most important thing is that Dan Brown is not cynical,” Hall says. “He believes everything he writes. You can’t fake this, which is why most of his imitators are doomed to fail. Dan Brown wrote the best possible book he could write. My book about these principles will not be a formula for success.”

Which also may explain why others had much greater trouble reading the book, as the Chicago Sun-Times found out. “I read 50 pages and put it down,” said Bill Young, president of Midwest Media and a frequent escort of authors who come to Chicago for book-signings and other appearances. “I had Dan Brown in town and liked him, but I was just amazed that his book took off to the extent that it did.” More succinct was James McManus: “It’s painful to read stuff like that,” he says. “Give me some Novocain.”

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.