Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

In this study, we look at all (n=15) military memoirs published between 2001 and 2010 in Britain about military participation in the Afghanistan conflict, to establish the factors that determine whether or not a military memoir becomes a better-seller (adjusted sales >15,000 copies). We look at three aspects of the book - content (i.e., type of plot), cover (e.g., whether rank or the award of medals is mentioned) and author features (e.g., rank, sex, co-authorship by another established writer, foreword by a well-known person) - and analyze data on these aspects, compared to sales figures, using SPSS. We find only …

In this study, we look at all (n=15) military memoirs published between 2001 and 2010 in Britain about military participation in the Afghanistan conflict, to establish the factors which determine whether a military memoir becomes a best-seller (sales >10,000 copies), or not. We look at three aspects of the book: content (i.e. type of plot), cover (e.g. whether rank or the award of medals is mentioned) and author features (e.g. seniority, sex, co-authorship by another established writer, preface by well-known person), and analysed data on these aspects, and on sales figures, using SPSS. The results are interesting for the insight …