What makes a bestselling novel? Is it the plot, the characters, the setting, the theme, or the conflict? Is it some combination of these elements of fiction?

Now, The Guardian reports on a group of statisticians who have developed a formula for bestselling novels. Dr. Alvai Winkler (formerly with Middlesex University) explained: "When we tested our model on 700 titles published over 50 years, it correctly predicted whether a book was a bestseller or not for nearly 70% of cases." Of course, according to the article, the formula "rules out almost everything by Charles Dickens." Even with a formula, there may just be something about bestselling books that we can't explain, or quantify.