Trending or Enduring

Once upon a time—it was a dark and stormy night—Elmer Gantry was drunk.

The above three beginnings are indelibly written in literary history. The first one has been hugely overused; the second one from Bulwer-Lytton's novel Paul Clifford was dubbed by Writer's Digest as "the literary poster child for bad story starters"; the third is the opening of Sinclair Lewis' sacrilegious novel Elmer Gantry, written in 1926 and turned into a film starring Burt Lancaster in 1960.

Openings are important because they hook readers, but what follows is equally important because it keeps those readers hooked. Content makes a book enduring (surviving the test of time) or trending (focusing on trends that change from generation to generation and fall out of favor).

Many of us have read—or at least heard of—William Shakespeare, the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans), Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, Danielle Steel, Nora Roberts, and the list of enduring authors goes on and on.

While some may argue that Ms. Steel and Ms. Roberts (also writing as J. D. Robb) are in exceptional company, considering their recent entry into the literary field, their books have sold many millions of copies, and both are still going strong. By virtue of their sales numbers alone, we can reasonably say their stories are enduring.

Let's take a closer look at one of those modern, enduring examples, Danielle Steel. What has earned her a place among the literary giants of the past? Sales. She has sold more than an estimated 800 million books, making her the fourth bestselling novelist of all time. Will her books continue to sell a hundred years from now? Only time will tell, but they've certainly endured so far.

Why has she been so successful? She was in the right place at the right time with the right content. Her readers became fans and, because she is a very prolific writer who has fed them a constant flow of stories that endeared her to them, they multiplied significantly. She's written more than 160 volumes to date.

The publishing industry has changed. Still, authors are making a living in the halls of modern literature. With new publishing methods such as digital delivery systems, which can take books to places where hard copies might never go, we can reach readers in ways not available to writers of the past. Self-publishing has thrown open the doors of opportunity and overtaken the large publishing houses of the past. While the number of avid readers has dwindled, the number of published volumes has exploded into the stratosphere. Still, we can learn from authors whose works have passed the test of time (even recent times). One commonality that threads through all their books is content: readers relate to their characters and their issues. Stories that address the unchanging human condition are enduring, timeless. Regardless of genre, there's no trending here.

How do you feel about the evolving world of publishing? What have you gleaned from past authors as well as modern ones such as Danielle Steel, whose works are enduring despite all the changes?

Editor Linda Lane has returned to her first love—writing—while maintaining her editing work. Her novels fall into the literary category because they are character driven rather than plot driven, but their quick pace reminds the reader of genre fiction. They also contain elements of romance, mystery, and suspense. You can contact her through her websites: LSLaneBooks.com and DenverEditor.com.