The WordPress Bestseller List
Move over, New York Times bestseller list.
Millions of people across the globe turn to WordPress to build their websites and blogs, and we’re proud to say WordPress is home to many bestselling writers and winners of prestigious literary awards and prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize. In other words, we have our own bestseller list!
Take a look at the bestsellers and award winners who use WordPress — and be sure to scroll down to read about the notable works and WordPress-powered websites of twelve authors we’ve handpicked from this impressive list:
Jami Attenberg
Released this month, Attenberg’s third novel, The Middlesteins, is a story of marriage, new and old love, family, and our culture’s obsession with food. In addition to her novels, Attenberg has contributed both fiction and nonfiction to many outlets, from the New York Times and Salon to The Awl and numerous anthologies and zines. We love that she took all of the photographs on her site (except the one of herself!).
Margaret Atwood
We’re thrilled that Atwood, one of the most honored authors of our time, has a blog hosted on WordPress.com. (Hooray for the Pilcrow theme!) As you scroll through her posts, you’ll find a surprising mix of content: notes on publishing conferences, poetry, ideas, and even galleries of personal photographs. Just like her active Twitter handle, the blog adds an extra dimension to the author’s public persona.
Lauren Beukes
Winner of the 2011 Arthur C. Clarke Award for Zoo City — and shortlisted for various other awards — Beukes is a South African novelist, comics writer, and screenwriter (she’s currently adapting Zoo City into a screenplay). We dig the simple yet modern design, with a splash of yellow: it’s bold, fresh, and inviting.
Michael Chabon
We love poking around on the pages of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon’s website. On the About page, you get lost in an entertaining timeline of his youth, educational and romantic pursuits, and other morsels of information, and the Uncollected section is an archive of literary introductions, political pieces, and other essays you’ve probably never read.
Junot Diaz
Clean and elegant, Diaz’s website reminds us of his simple book covers — bold black type and abstract imagery against a plain, light-colored background — suggesting the power of his words. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award in 2008 for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Diaz maintains a minimal site, though keeps his interviews and publishing news section up to date.
Anthony Doerr
No stranger to prestigious awards, author Anthony Doerr has won four O. Henry Prizes for his short fiction, and has received two Pushcart Prizes, the Rome Prize, and numerous other awards and fellowships. Essays and science columns can also be found, respectively, at The Morning News and the Boston Globe. We enjoy the variety of writing on his site and especially like his ever-changing footers devoted to biological classification. (Take a peek — you’re guaranteed to learn something new.)
Tim Ferriss
“The rules of reality can be bent. It just requires thinking in different terms.” You’ll find this advice on the blog of Tim Ferriss, a business innovator and bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek, a guide to lifestyle design. His blog, ranked number one among the top 150 management and leadership blogs and shortlisted by Inc. Magazine, is regularly updated with a mix of inspirational and practical content and out-of-the-box thinking.
Laura Hillenbrand
For 42 weeks, Hillenbrand’s first book, Seabiscuit, stayed at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Unbroken, a World War II biography of Louis Zamperini, has spent nearly 100 weeks — and counting — on the list. On her website, you can listen to an audio excerpt, read about Unbroken‘s characters, and read discussion questions.
Salman Rushdie
British Indian novelist Salman Rushdie is the author of 11 novels, including Midnight’s Children and The Satanic Verses; his books have been translated into over 40 languages. The featured slider on the home page highlights some of his work, and the imagery evokes his magical realism style and themes of East and West. His newest book, Joseph Anton: A Memoir, was released last month.
John Scalzi
A WordPress.com VIP blog since October 2008, Whatever is science fiction author and online writer John Scalzi’s long-running blog, which was created in September 1998. It’s one of the most visited personal blogs on the web, and is generally updated daily (and sometimes more than once a day, which we love!). Here, you’ll find anything and everything, from books and politics to technology and photography (his outdoor shots of Ohio are lovely).
Rebecca Skloot
Skloot’s first book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, whose cells were cultured to create an immortal cell line for medical research without her knowledge. An important piece of nonfiction on ethics, science, and reporting, it was named by more than 60 critics as one of the best books of 2010 and is required reading at many schools and universities. Her site has teaching resources, a HeLa Forum to engage the conversation between the scientific community and the public, and other extras like videos.
Gene Luen Yang
We love the color and energy of Gene Luen Yang’s site, which complements his comics and graphic novels. In 1996, he began self-publishing his own comics under Humble Comics, and ten years later published American Born Chinese, which became the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award. Yang is an advocate for using comics and graphic novels in the classroom, and we like reading about his projects and efforts that promote this education.
Feeling inspired by this crop of literary powerhouses? Here’s a tip for November: participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and write a 50,000-word novel by November 30. Learn more on the NaNoWriMo website.
The Side Trek “Books” Page likes so many of these authors. Pilcrow rocks.
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Reblogged this on Egill and commented:
All the clever people use WordPress…
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So glad to have settled into such company.
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I’m sorry; I love wordpress, but this is pure nonsense–Of the handful I tried–NONE of these writers use wordpress, they are ALLUDED to on some wordpress blog. What earthly difference could that make to us. Following a writer–inspiring. Having communication with a writer–thrilling. Being followed by a writer–unbelievably encouraging. But it is unbelievable. Knowing that a writer is mentioned by a blogger–WHO CARES? For half a second I thought M Atwood was really blogging there. She tweets.But the responds to tweets, too.The only response I see on that blog, is someone admitting that he or she needs help finding the twitterfeed button.That would be the blogger–possibly someone from her publisher’s pr office– who is taking her essays & comments & posting them on both goodreads & this blog that is called M.A. Year of the Flood.
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Indeed, the authors featured in our infographic have sites powered by WordPress (with the blogs of Atwood and Scalzi hosted on WordPress.com).
Atwood’s main site links to her WordPress.com blog, and her book site for Year of the Flood links back to her WordPress.com blog, too (see “blog” to the right of “press”).
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Thanks for making WordPress more and more interesting 🙂
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Hi Cheri,
Thanks for ignoring all the fabulous indie authors who utilize WordPress. We don’t appreciate it.
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There can always be another list. 🙂
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Highlighting independent authors is a great idea. Noted!
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This is fantastic! So many great writers using WordPress! I am proud to be a WordPress blogger!! 🙂
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Reblogged this on Peter H. Slutsky.
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Hey, what about me? I have not won a pulitzer (yet) — Jorge E. Goyanes, author Miami Beat, great review on Kirkus in October.
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Thanks for your input. We could certainly consider publishing more lists in the future.
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These are some good recommendations… 😉
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I hope there is an Independent Authors list for WordPress. There are a lot of us!
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Yep, there are a lot of authors period using WordPress! We can certainly consider more lists in the future.
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Just wanted to note that when I checked Margaret Atwood’s site that is listed here I found that she hasn’t updated an entry since June 2012…does she use another address now? Other than that, great list.
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Aside from this blog, Atwood has several sites (like this one, as well as a site for Year of the Flood. Not sure why she hasn’t updated recently — could be her busy schedule?
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I am a published author (not self-published). Would it be possible to have my name put on the list of authors on WordPress?
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We may put together similar lists in the future — thanks for your query!
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Thanks — are you not including all? I have 8 books written and published.
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Hi Chrissie — no, this isn’t a comprehensive list of all authors on WordPress. We may certainly consider publishing more lists in the future. Thanks!
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There is a very notable omission here in leading author of romantic fiction Carole Matthews.
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We’ll continue to compile authors that weren’t on this list — thanks for your note!
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Just to let you know, I am an author as well and it is primarily because of my blog my book has been out a year now and is going to its 3rd printing. It is published by The History Press and is entitled Classic Diners of Massachusetts.
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Thanks for letting us know!
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As a writer in secret it is great to get the thoughts of the proven writers.
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Reblogged this on Simon Hamer and commented:
Good to hear WordPress still has its place in the online community.
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Delighted to hear I am in such good company. Although not a best seller, my novel ‘Micka’ was on BBC Radio 4s ‘A Good Read’ programme last year and was also the runner up for the Society of Authors’ McKitterick Prize. Don’t forget the small people!
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Re-blogged this for my followers. So captivating because mainly Americans, some well-known this side of the pond. I hadn’t caught up with the latest from the author of Seabiscuit (which I loved). If you loved Seabiscuit too, did you also read horse Heaven by Jane Smiley?
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Reblogged this on Cheryl Andrews and commented:
Interesting compilation … a list of authors on WordPress! Ooooh I see Alice Hoffman is there and I just have to go look. Enjoy!
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I agree this is cool. I also agree that recognition for those of us who are indies would be really nice. Thanks for making a note of that, Cheri. 🙂
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I know that any list will end up leaving someone out. But I do want to give a plug for Frederik Pohl’s blog. At 92 years old, this award winning Sci-Fi author is an active blogger with WordPress. His blog is Thewaythefutureblogs.com
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Thank you for letting us know! Noted.
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Hi Cheri, How do we get on this list if we are an Author and a WP guru?
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Hi Jon — not all authors on WordPress are on this bestseller/award winner list — the list is not comprehensive. In the future, we can consider publishing more lists like this. Thanks!
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Why not a list of published authors, whether or not they’re prize-winning, mid-list, etc. I’d be included in all these categories, but so would many other bloggers.
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Thanks for your feedback — we can certainly consider publishing different types of author lists in the future.
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Don’t forget Lawrence Block.
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Found his blog! Thanks for the tip.
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Impressive list. Congrats 😉
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Great listing, not to mention I’ve been to a few of these blogs before your posting. Nice!
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Reblogged this on Off The Shelf Book Promotions and commented:
This post confirms my conviction that WordPress is a great choice for authors’ websites. I use it for all my own websites (personal, business, charity, voluntary) and for the many authors’ sites that I’ve set up too. It’s always good to have your own views confirmed by a third party that you respect! We’re in good company…
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I’m hardly famous but I have been using WordPress for nearly four years and I have a short e-book on Amazon called Widows Like Me that is doing fairly well. It has been in the top 100 in its category a few times over the last week and it all started as a result of one of my newer blogs on widows.
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Thank you for giving us a glimpse of how far our passion for writing can take us!
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It’s wonderful that so many writers are using WordPress. It’s inspiring and encouraging 🙂
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Congratulations to the outstanding list of award winners. These all sound like must reads for me.
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nice list of recommendations.
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And Jonathan Cring, one of the most prolific self-published authors, who writesa DAILY blog on wordpress at http://www.jonathots.com. He is proud to be in such illustrious company–and they should be happy to read him, too!
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I’m an award-winning Australian crime writer who has had a wordpress author site since April 2006.
When my partner and fellow crime writer Andrew Nette set up his author site, it was a no brainer to recommend wordpress to him.
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I hope to some day soon to be included in this best sellers list!
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Reblogged this on Fay Moore: I Want To Be a Writer and commented:
Look at the company we keep! Thanks to Cheri Lucas for compiling this list.
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When you’re ready to create that list of indie authors who have WordPress blogs, here are a few you may want to include: 🙂 Thanks!
http://honiebriggs.com
http://markmywordssite.com/
http://swlothian.wordpress.com/
http://cristianmihai.net/
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You forgot about me! I am a writer! Albeit, a not very famous one. Maybe you could produce another list of not very famous writers, and include me. Perhaps you could call us ’emerging’ rather than ‘not very famous.’ It sounds better. 😉
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Glad to have this list. Great opportunity to use it as a gift selection. thank you!
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A reblogué ceci sur Penguins can read and commented:
Les blogs des auteurs sur Worpress.com, une liste interessante !
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Thanks, for the information. I had no idea we had so many writers here. Very impressive.
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Glad to have this list. Great opportunity to use it as a gift selection. thank you!
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Reblogged this on promoteyourbookblog and commented:
Good list of books.
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Hmm did I miss seeing Kim Harrison on there?
http://kimharrison.wordpress.com/
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A bestselling author missing from your list: Larry Correia, author of the Monster Hunter International books, at http://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/
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Reblogged this on Ultimate Savings Blog and commented:
Here is a great list for those avid readers on your holiday gift list!
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