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 1994
Jan 2, 1994 → Dec 25, 1994 · 52 chart weeks · ranked by Era Power — Sum of weekly Power Share over the range (share-weeks).
- 1Robert James Waller574
- 2James Redfield530
- 3Danielle Steel363
- 4John Grisham274
- 5Tom Clancy274
- 6James Finn Garner234
- 7Michael Crichton207
- 8Mary Higgins Clark182
- 9Stephen King169
- 10Laura Esquivel151
| # | Author | Era Power | Average share | Peak share | Peak smoothed | Weeks at #1 | Top-five weeks | Weeks charting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Robert James Waller | 574 | 11.04% | 23.82% | 21.18% | 16 | 31 | 52 |
| 2 | James Redfield | 530 | 10.19% | 14.97% | 12.38% | 10 | 42 | 43 |
| 3 | Danielle Steel | 363 | 6.98% | 15.04% | 9.04% | 4 | 23 | 40 |
| 4 | John Grisham | 274 | 5.27% | 14.53% | 10.12% | 8 | 19 | 31 |
| 5 | Tom Clancy | 274 | 5.26% | 14.53% | 9.11% | 6 | 20 | 31 |
| 6 | James Finn Garner | 234 | 4.50% | 14.72% | 10.33% | 3 | 16 | 27 |
| 7 | Michael Crichton | 207 | 3.98% | 15.12% | 9.73% | 0 | 13 | 22 |
| 8 | Mary Higgins Clark | 182 | 3.50% | 14.69% | 6.77% | 1 | 9 | 24 |
| 9 | Stephen King | 169 | 3.25% | 14.53% | 9.23% | 3 | 13 | 17 |
| 10 | Laura Esquivel | 151 | 2.90% | 9.97% | 7.32% | 0 | 13 | 24 |
| 11 | Caleb Carr | 141 | 2.71% | 9.58% | 6.13% | 0 | 4 | 24 |
| 12 | Anne Rice | 133 | 2.56% | 14.53% | 6.80% | 1 | 7 | 16 |
| 13 | Clive Cussler | 107 | 2.05% | 12.64% | 6.23% | 0 | 8 | 14 |
| 14 | Sidney Sheldon | 91 | 1.76% | 12.64% | 5.02% | 0 | 5 | 14 |
| 15 | Sue Grafton | 87 | 1.66% | 12.90% | 5.86% | 0 | 6 | 9 |
| 16 | Cormac McCarthy | 82 | 1.58% | 11.01% | 4.91% | 0 | 5 | 12 |
| 17 | Robin Cook | 79 | 1.52% | 9.97% | 4.52% | 0 | 5 | 12 |
| 18 | Allan Folsom | 76 | 1.47% | 11.23% | 4.46% | 0 | 3 | 12 |
| 19 | Patricia Cornwell | 70 | 1.35% | 12.64% | 4.58% | 0 | 4 | 10 |
| 20 | Jonathan Kellerman | 54 | 1.03% | 8.68% | 3.65% | 0 | 4 | 9 |
| 21 | LaVyrle Spencer | 53 | 1.01% | 8.64% | 3.64% | 0 | 2 | 9 |
| 22 | Dean Koontz | 51 | 0.97% | 6.41% | 3.94% | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| 23 | Don Ferguson | 50 | 0.96% | 6.32% | 3.13% | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| 24 | Barbara Taylor Bradford | 46 | 0.89% | 9.58% | 3.25% | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| 25 | Lilian Jackson Braun | 46 | 0.88% | 7.49% | 3.24% | 0 | 1 | 9 |
| 26 | John Irving | 39 | 0.75% | 6.32% | 2.71% | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| 27 | Robert Jordan | 39 | 0.75% | 9.58% | 3.18% | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| 28 | Judith Krantz | 36 | 0.70% | 7.33% | 2.80% | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 29 | Frederick Forsyth | 36 | 0.70% | 6.32% | 2.49% | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| 30 | Dr. Seuss | 36 | 0.70% | 9.58% | 2.81% | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| 31 | Marlo Morgan | 36 | 0.68% | 4.79% | 1.83% | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| 32 | W. E. B. Griffin | 35 | 0.68% | 7.56% | 2.63% | 0 | 1 | 7 |
| 33 | E. L. Doctorow | 32 | 0.63% | 8.34% | 2.29% | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| 34 | Judith McNaught | 31 | 0.61% | 7.26% | 2.59% | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 35 | Garrison Keillor | 29 | 0.56% | 5.76% | 2.88% | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 36 | Steve Martini | 26 | 0.50% | 4.79% | 2.11% | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 37 | Peter Hoeg | 25 | 0.49% | 4.99% | 1.95% | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 38 | Herman Wouk | 25 | 0.48% | 6.62% | 3.12% | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 39 | Dick Francis | 25 | 0.48% | 5.50% | 2.17% | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 40 | Nelson DeMille | 25 | 0.48% | 5.50% | 2.03% | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 41 | Don Imus | 24 | 0.46% | 6.39% | 2.17% | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 42 | Jack Higgins | 23 | 0.45% | 6.52% | 1.82% | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 43 | John Sandford | 23 | 0.45% | 5.50% | 1.80% | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 44 | Lawrence Sanders | 20 | 0.38% | 3.76% | 1.53% | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 45 | Bebe Moore Campbell | 19 | 0.36% | 3.63% | 1.45% | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 46 | A.C. Crispin | 17 | 0.33% | 4.96% | 1.46% | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 47 | John Weisman | 17 | 0.33% | 3.26% | 1.34% | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 48 | Richard Marcinko | 17 | 0.33% | 3.26% | 1.34% | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 49 | Julie Garwood | 17 | 0.32% | 4.79% | 1.55% | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 50 | Sandra Brown | 17 | 0.32% | 4.22% | 1.46% | 0 | 0 | 5 |