RALEIGH, N.C., July 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Bestselling novels by male authors like Dan Brown and Stephen King are heading for extinction, according to a new study which reveals that writers like J.K. Rowling and Danielle Steel have helped women double their share of #1 bestsellers over the last 20 years.

The study of the 354 novels to have topped the hardback fiction section of the New York Times Bestseller List during the 50 years from 1955-2004 was conducted by Lulu (http://www.lulu.com/), a website that lets anyone publish and sell their own book.

The female share of #1 bestsellers over the first decade of the study (1955-1964) was 17.8%, and still just 23.8% as recently as the 1980s - compared to 46% over the last decade (1995-2004), and 50% so far this year. Meanwhile, books by women fill four of the five top places in the current New York Times Hardback Fiction Bestseller list.

The novel itself is sometimes considered a female literary form. Yet, barely 50 years ago, reveals the Lulu study, women novelists went four straight years (1958-61) without notching a single #1 bestseller.

1999, the year that J.K. Rowling first topped the list, saw women writers publish nine out of 12 of the year's #1 bestsellers - a record 67% share. The first three Potter books each topped the list that year.

The New York Times responded by establishing a separate children's fiction list, for the apparent purpose of excluding Potter from the main, adult list.

The new study was conducted by Lulu as part of a drive to boost the 22% share of books by women which make up its own bestseller list (http://www.lulu.com/browse/top100.php).

If present trends continue, bestsellers by women will imminently overtake those by men, before eventually making the latter extinct.

"Once," says Bob Young, CEO of Lulu, "women writers took on male pen- names, like George Eliot. Soon, male writers may have to adopt female pseudonyms: the Dan Brown of the future will become Danielle while the Stephen King will be Stephanie."

ABOUT LULU.COM

Lulu is the world's fastest-growing provider of print-on-demand books - and a way for authors of all kinds to publish and sell their books with no up- front costs. Lulu provides independent publishers with free access to on- demand publishing tools for books, eBooks, music, images and calendars.

CONTACT: Stephen Fraser of Lulu.com, +1-919-459-5858, ext. 235, or
pr@lulu.com

Web site: http://www.lulu.com/
http://www.lulu.com/browse/top100.php