As a
writer, blogger, and book promoter you need to have a strong foundation of
knowledge. You need to have an
understanding not only of what’s in the news but of cultural literacy. You have to possess a good vocabulary and
have a command of the English language.
But you also need to have a sense of trends.
In
the look-it-up era of the Internet you may be able to locate facts that you
seek out, but you should also have an awareness of miscellaneous facts, trivia
and statistics. If you thumb through a book like The World Almanac and Book of Facts: 2017, you’ll get such an awareness.
You
can look up who was president a century ago, find out which nations have the
largest populations, how many Americans are married, a summary of landmark
Supreme Court cases, a chronological listing of historical events, visuals of
every country’s flag, the tuition at hundreds of colleges, lists of Academy Award
winners, and sports champions, and so many other interesting and relevant things.
You
will see trends regarding dieting and health, dog ownership, cancer survival
rates, crime, international tourism, housing, Wall Street, popular American
names, Internet usage, and scores of other important areas.
Want
to know which websites got visited by the most unique visitors? Here you go:
1.
Google
(includes YouTube, Blogger) 1.233494
billion
2.
Microsoft
(Bing, Xbox Live) 909.193
million
3.
Facebook
(Instagram) 834,810
million
4.
Yahoo
(Flicker, Tumbler) 557,106
million
5.
Baidu
6.
Sohu
Amazon
was ninth in the world and Wikimedia 10th. Apple was 17th globally and
Twitter didn’t crack the top 20.
Did
you know that the U.S. doesn’t even crack the top 20 countries with the highest
percentage of population using the Internet?
98.2% of Iceland uses the Internet.
Taiwan, at 20,th has 87.98% of its population online.
Did
you know that in 1980, 233 films were released to 17,590 screens in the U.S.,
playing to 1.021 billion admissions. In
2015, 708 films were released (triple 35 years ago) to 43,661 screens (2.5
times 35 years ago), playing to 1.321 billion admissions.
Want
some publishing and book facts?
The
top public libraries with the most holdings of print, electronic, audio, and
video materials, are:
1.
New
York Public Library
2.
Boston
Public Library
3.
Detroit
Public Library
4.
Los
Angeles. Public Library
5.
Cincinnati
Public Library
What
were the most challenged books in libraries of 2015? A challenge, by the way, is a formal, written
complaint filed with a library or school requesting the materials be removed
because of content.
Here are the Top 10 of that year:
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L.
James
I am Jazz by Jessica
Herthal and Jazz Jennings
Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the
Night Time
by Mark Haddon
The Holy Bible
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Habibi by Craig Thompson
Nasreen’s Secret School by Jeanette Winter
Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
Interestingly,
the circulation of daily newspapers was 62 million in 1970. The same for 1980 and 1990. But then things collapsed. We’re down to 34 million in 2015. It was 41.132 million in 1940 when there were
not even half as many people in the U.S. as there are now.
Which
books sold the most copies in 2015?
Trade
Paperback
Fifty Shades of Grey as Told By Christian
Paper Towns
Secret Garden
Hardcover
Fiction
Go Set a Watchman
The Girl on the Train
Rogue Lawyer
Hardcover
Non-Fiction
Killing Reagan
The Pioneer Woman Cooks
The Wright Brothers
Top
News Websites, 2016, Based on Visitors
Yahoo – ABC Network
CNN
The Weather Company
NBC News Digital
USA Today
CBS News
Huffington Post
Buzzfeed.com
New York Times Digital
Washington Post
One trend to follow is new words. It seems like new terms are coined daily. Fist bump shouldn’t be confused with fist pump. Do you have a baby bump or did you unfriend someone? Be aware you may need some manscaping or you’ll become cringe worthy. None of this was spoken of a decade ago.
Another,
The CIA World Factbook: 2017, can be
useful to inform the writer that the needs to begin to know. This is a global dossier of every country,
broken down by demographics, history, climate, government, economy, energy,
transportation, military size, communication capabilities and other statistical
oddities.
If
you want oddball books, go for Ripley’s
Believe It or Not or Guiness Book of
World Records. Each is a colorful, glossy,
oversized annual edition of amazing feats, records and obscure things or
people.
You
don’t have to memorize a lot of data, but you need to begin to have a sense of
proportion. You need to know when a
country is tiny or big, or whether some sports teams are good or lousy. You have to spot trends and be able to
extrapolate from hard numbers. Is the
world moving in a certain direction, and if so, are you ahead of the curve?
The
more you know, the better you write.
Know your facts and trends and you’ll greatly improve your writing.
All-New 2017 Book Marketing & PR Toolkit
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