Eras
Who was the most powerful author in a year, who dominated a decade, who held #1 the longest. Every figure is a defined metric summed or maximised over a date range of stored weekly rows — nothing is weighted by opinion.
Leader of every year
Column height = the leader's average Power Share over the period. Click a column to explore that range.
- Robert Ludlum5 periods
- John Grisham5 periods
- James Patterson5 periods
- Lloyd C. Douglas3 periods
- Leon Uris3 periods
- Stephen King3 periods
- Dan Brown3 periods
- Hervey Allen2 periods
- Margaret Mitchell2 periods
- Herman Wouk2 periods
- James A. Michener2 periods
- Robert James Waller2 periods
- James Redfield2 periods
- Danielle Steel2 periods
- J. K. Rowling2 periods
- Gillian Flynn2 periods
- Anthony Doerr2 periods
- Delia Owens2 periods
- Rebecca Yarros2 periods
- John Galsworthy1 period
- Charles Morgan1 period
- A. J. Cronin1 period
- John Steinbeck1 period
- Richard Llewellyn1 period
- James Hilton1 period
- Franz Werfel1 period
- Lillian Smith1 period
- Samuel Shellaburger1 period
- Taylor Caldwell1 period
- Laura Z. Hobson1 period
- Norman Mailer1 period
- Henry Morton Robinson1 period
- James Jones1 period
- Annemarie Selinko1 period
- Morton Thompson1 period
- Francoise Sagan1 period
- Edwin O'Connor1 period
- Grace Metalious1 period
- Robert Traver1 period
- Harper Lee1 period
- Katherine Anne Porter1 period
- Morris L. West1 period
- John le Carré1 period
- Bel Kaufman1 period
- Jacqueline Susann1 period
- Elia Kazan1 period
- Arthur Hailey1 period
- Mario Puzo1 period
- Erich Segal1 period
- Frederick Forsyth1 period
- Peter Benchley1 period
- James Michener1 period
- Paul E. Erdman1 period
- J.R.R. Tolkien1 period
- James Clavell1 period
- Tom Wolfe1 period
- Tom Clancy1 period
- Khaled Hosseini1 period
- Stephenie Meyer1 period
- Kathryn Stockett1 period
- Donna Tartt1 period
- Matt Haig1 period
- Bonnie Garmus1 period
- Virginia Evans1 period
Leaders in 1987
Jan 4, 1987 → Dec 27, 1987 · 52 chart weeks · ranked by Era Power — Sum of weekly Power Share over the range (share-weeks).
- 1Stephen King644
- 2Tom Clancy466
- 3Danielle Steel409
- 4Sidney Sheldon319
- 5Scott Turow313
- 6Louis L'Amour196
- 7Pat Conroy155
- 8Garrison Keillor132
- 9Mary Higgins Clark122
- 10Edward Rutherfurd118
| # | Author | Era Power | Average share | Peak share | Peak smoothed | Weeks at #1 | Top-five weeks | Weeks charting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stephen King | 644 | 12.38% | 22.57% | 16.03% | 23 | 41 | 52 |
| 2 | Tom Clancy | 466 | 8.96% | 14.53% | 11.93% | 7 | 32 | 50 |
| 3 | Danielle Steel | 409 | 7.86% | 14.82% | 11.02% | 13 | 25 | 40 |
| 4 | Sidney Sheldon | 319 | 6.13% | 15.03% | 10.77% | 0 | 19 | 32 |
| 5 | Scott Turow | 313 | 6.02% | 14.62% | 12.03% | 8 | 22 | 27 |
| 6 | Louis L'Amour | 196 | 3.77% | 14.53% | 8.62% | 1 | 12 | 22 |
| 7 | Pat Conroy | 155 | 2.98% | 8.34% | 6.72% | 0 | 2 | 37 |
| 8 | Garrison Keillor | 132 | 2.54% | 12.64% | 7.85% | 0 | 13 | 13 |
| 9 | Mary Higgins Clark | 122 | 2.34% | 11.09% | 6.77% | 0 | 9 | 17 |
| 10 | Edward Rutherfurd | 118 | 2.26% | 11.01% | 5.19% | 0 | 4 | 19 |
| 11 | John Jakes | 107 | 2.06% | 12.64% | 5.98% | 0 | 7 | 13 |
| 12 | Jack Higgins | 99 | 1.91% | 9.88% | 5.79% | 0 | 7 | 14 |
| 13 | Dick Francis | 98 | 1.88% | 11.18% | 5.88% | 0 | 7 | 13 |
| 14 | James Clavell | 96 | 1.85% | 12.64% | 9.26% | 0 | 6 | 14 |
| 15 | Toni Morrison | 94 | 1.80% | 11.01% | 5.02% | 0 | 3 | 15 |
| 16 | Stephen Coonts | 93 | 1.79% | 6.52% | 5.05% | 0 | 0 | 19 |
| 17 | Sally Beauman | 89 | 1.71% | 9.73% | 5.13% | 0 | 5 | 14 |
| 18 | James A. Michener | 85 | 1.64% | 11.01% | 4.42% | 0 | 3 | 16 |
| 19 | Douglas Adams | 85 | 1.63% | 8.40% | 4.97% | 0 | 5 | 14 |
| 20 | Colleen McCullough | 84 | 1.61% | 11.01% | 5.41% | 0 | 4 | 12 |
| 21 | Tom Wolfe | 82 | 1.57% | 12.64% | 6.35% | 0 | 7 | 8 |
| 22 | Larry McMurtry | 76 | 1.47% | 11.09% | 5.14% | 0 | 4 | 11 |
| 23 | Gore Vidal | 76 | 1.45% | 11.09% | 4.47% | 0 | 3 | 13 |
| 24 | Paul Erdman | 67 | 1.29% | 7.51% | 4.14% | 0 | 4 | 13 |
| 25 | Janet Dailey | 66 | 1.27% | 9.80% | 3.65% | 0 | 3 | 16 |
| 26 | Lawrence Sanders | 58 | 1.11% | 8.44% | 3.51% | 0 | 2 | 12 |
| 27 | Saul Bellow | 54 | 1.05% | 8.40% | 3.15% | 0 | 1 | 13 |
| 28 | Elmore Leonard | 54 | 1.04% | 9.97% | 3.55% | 0 | 2 | 10 |
| 29 | Robert B. Parker | 52 | 1.00% | 11.15% | 3.54% | 0 | 2 | 9 |
| 30 | Michael Crichton | 49 | 0.94% | 7.26% | 3.15% | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| 31 | Barbara Raskin | 47 | 0.90% | 5.50% | 3.01% | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| 32 | P.D. James | 46 | 0.88% | 9.58% | 6.82% | 0 | 3 | 7 |
| 33 | Robin Cook | 43 | 0.82% | 9.80% | 2.92% | 0 | 1 | 9 |
| 34 | Walker Percy | 42 | 0.80% | 6.37% | 2.92% | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| 35 | William Safire | 39 | 0.75% | 7.26% | 2.51% | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| 36 | Jackie Collins | 36 | 0.69% | 9.58% | 6.97% | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| 37 | Gail Godwin | 31 | 0.59% | 6.32% | 2.28% | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 38 | Kurt Vonnegut | 30 | 0.58% | 5.50% | 2.08% | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| 39 | John Gardner | 26 | 0.51% | 4.79% | 2.04% | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 40 | Chris Van Allsburg | 25 | 0.47% | 7.26% | 1.78% | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 41 | L. Ron Hubbard | 24 | 0.45% | 4.34% | 1.31% | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 42 | Martha Grimes | 23 | 0.45% | 5.50% | 1.77% | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 43 | Patrick F. McManus | 20 | 0.39% | 3.18% | 1.53% | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 44 | Andrew M. Greeley | 18 | 0.35% | 3.76% | 1.47% | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 45 | Isaac Asimov | 18 | 0.34% | 4.79% | 4.17% | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 46 | Arthur C. Clarke | 17 | 0.33% | 4.83% | 1.62% | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 47 | W. E. B. Griffin | 16 | 0.31% | 4.17% | 1.42% | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 48 | Jacqueline Briskin | 16 | 0.30% | 5.63% | 1.41% | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 49 | Philip Roth | 15 | 0.28% | 3.27% | 1.27% | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 50 | David Eddings | 14 | 0.26% | 3.19% | 1.18% | 0 | 0 | 5 |