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 1995
Jan 1, 1995 → Dec 31, 1995 · 53 chart weeks · ranked by Era Power — Sum of weekly Power Share over the range (share-weeks).
- 1James Redfield506
- 2James Finn Garner427
- 3Robert James Waller400
- 4Mary Higgins Clark269
- 5John Grisham268
- 6Danielle Steel204
- 7Pat Conroy179
- 8Michael Crichton173
- 9Nicholas Evans139
- 10Stephen King137
| # | Author | Era Power | Average share | Peak share | Peak smoothed | Weeks at #1 | Top-five weeks | Weeks charting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Redfield | 506 | 9.54% | 14.90% | 14.29% | 7 | 26 | 53 |
| 2 | James Finn Garner | 427 | 8.06% | 14.74% | 12.16% | 3 | 31 | 49 |
| 3 | Robert James Waller | 400 | 7.55% | 17.14% | 12.27% | 9 | 23 | 41 |
| 4 | Mary Higgins Clark | 269 | 5.07% | 13.06% | 7.82% | 0 | 16 | 33 |
| 5 | John Grisham | 268 | 5.05% | 15.01% | 10.37% | 9 | 16 | 28 |
| 6 | Danielle Steel | 204 | 3.86% | 14.53% | 9.10% | 2 | 15 | 23 |
| 7 | Pat Conroy | 179 | 3.38% | 14.69% | 8.63% | 3 | 11 | 22 |
| 8 | Michael Crichton | 173 | 3.26% | 14.53% | 9.86% | 8 | 13 | 13 |
| 9 | Nicholas Evans | 139 | 2.62% | 14.53% | 7.36% | 1 | 10 | 15 |
| 10 | Stephen King | 137 | 2.58% | 12.87% | 8.39% | 0 | 8 | 19 |
| 11 | Anne Rice | 130 | 2.45% | 14.65% | 7.04% | 3 | 8 | 17 |
| 12 | Sidney Sheldon | 128 | 2.42% | 12.64% | 6.47% | 0 | 7 | 19 |
| 13 | Rosamunde Pilcher | 114 | 2.16% | 12.64% | 5.95% | 0 | 8 | 17 |
| 14 | Dr. Seuss | 111 | 2.10% | 9.86% | 4.84% | 0 | 3 | 17 |
| 15 | Anne Tyler | 97 | 1.83% | 11.32% | 5.11% | 0 | 5 | 16 |
| 16 | Richard Paul Evans | 95 | 1.79% | 14.53% | 7.54% | 3 | 7 | 9 |
| 17 | James Patterson | 94 | 1.77% | 11.12% | 5.79% | 0 | 7 | 12 |
| 18 | Patricia Cornwell | 91 | 1.72% | 14.63% | 6.14% | 3 | 6 | 10 |
| 19 | P.D. James | 86 | 1.62% | 9.77% | 5.37% | 0 | 6 | 11 |
| 20 | Robert Ludlum | 85 | 1.61% | 11.33% | 5.48% | 0 | 6 | 11 |
| 21 | John le Carré | 75 | 1.42% | 12.97% | 5.33% | 0 | 6 | 9 |
| 22 | Marlo Morgan | 67 | 1.26% | 4.92% | 3.15% | 0 | 0 | 19 |
| 23 | Sue Grafton | 66 | 1.24% | 14.53% | 4.96% | 2 | 5 | 7 |
| 24 | Amy Tan | 65 | 1.23% | 11.01% | 4.42% | 0 | 3 | 9 |
| 25 | Jane Smiley | 62 | 1.17% | 8.49% | 3.81% | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| 26 | Tom Clancy | 57 | 1.07% | 12.81% | 9.85% | 0 | 3 | 8 |
| 27 | Richard North Patterson | 57 | 1.07% | 9.58% | 3.33% | 0 | 3 | 11 |
| 28 | William J. Bennett | 56 | 1.05% | 9.58% | 4.24% | 0 | 2 | 8 |
| 29 | Maeve Binchy | 55 | 1.04% | 8.56% | 3.65% | 0 | 2 | 11 |
| 30 | Sandra Brown | 53 | 1.00% | 8.44% | 3.40% | 0 | 1 | 11 |
| 31 | Barbara Taylor Bradford | 48 | 0.90% | 7.26% | 2.48% | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| 32 | Peter Mayle | 46 | 0.87% | 8.51% | 3.22% | 0 | 2 | 9 |
| 33 | Jonathan Kellerman | 45 | 0.85% | 9.68% | 3.60% | 0 | 4 | 7 |
| 34 | Dick Francis | 44 | 0.84% | 9.58% | 3.44% | 0 | 2 | 7 |
| 35 | Dean Koontz | 42 | 0.80% | 5.58% | 3.03% | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| 36 | LaVyrle Spencer | 36 | 0.69% | 7.41% | 2.94% | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 37 | Ken Follett | 36 | 0.69% | 7.26% | 2.68% | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 38 | Larry McMurtry | 36 | 0.68% | 6.32% | 2.80% | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 39 | Robin Cook | 36 | 0.67% | 7.26% | 2.83% | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 40 | Maya Angelou | 33 | 0.62% | 6.45% | 2.12% | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| 41 | Uncredited | 31 | 0.58% | 4.85% | 2.16% | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 42 | John Sandford | 29 | 0.55% | 6.50% | 2.22% | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| 43 | Jimmy Carter | 22 | 0.41% | 4.89% | 1.85% | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 44 | George Dawes Green | 21 | 0.41% | 5.63% | 1.54% | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 45 | Barbara Hambly | 21 | 0.39% | 7.37% | 1.85% | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 46 | Carl Hiaasen | 20 | 0.38% | 4.79% | 1.61% | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 47 | Eugenia Price | 20 | 0.38% | 6.53% | 1.70% | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 48 | Tony Hillerman | 20 | 0.37% | 4.79% | 1.55% | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 49 | W. E. B. Griffin | 20 | 0.37% | 5.50% | 1.72% | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 50 | Tom Hegg | 19 | 0.36% | 3.20% | 1.03% | 0 | 0 | 7 |