Quantifying the Weepy Bestseller
I have a new piece out that is appearing in The New Republic. In a number of recent book reviews, literary critics and novelists arrive at the consensus that to be a great writer, one must avoid being...
View ArticleThe Devoir Challenge. How to write like an American Bestseller
When the books editor of Le Devoir, Catherine Lalonde, called to ask if my lab would supply a data-driven guide on how to write like a bestseller, I enthusiastically said yes. But I expected everyone...
View ArticletxtLAB450. A Multilingual Data Set of Novels for Teaching and Research
I am very pleased to be able to share a collection of 450 novels that we have assembled that were published in English, French, and German during the long nineteenth century (1770-1930). The novels are...
View ArticleThe .txtLAB Guide on How to Write Like a Bestseller
Here is a humble 1-page guideline that we produced after studying a sample of 10 years worth of the bestselling novels according to the NY Times Bestseller list. It was used as part of the Devoir...
View ArticleDo Creative Writing Degrees Impact the Contemporary Novel?
I have a new piece out in The Atlantic with Richard Jean So. The piece addresses recent debates as to whether MFA programs have had a major impact on contemporary novels. The short version is that...
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