Which book would you predict will be the runaway smash hit of 2010?

The new Dan Brown book, The Lost Symbol.

Harry Potter and the tale of the non-expected Last Book.

Sadly, anything by Dan Brown.

I think Arthur C. Clarke’s 2010 will make a resurgence.

Hopefully something geared more towards adults.

@mrentropy I haven’t read 2010, but next year will be a good time to do it!

@drdoombot My prediction is on the way to coming true!

I’d put money on J.K. Rowling’s coming up with a pretext for a Harry Potter sequel or spinoff of some sort, not because she wants to but because the fans and the marketers are insatiable. Something of the sort is what made Sir Arthur Conan Doyle boot Sherlock Holmes to certain death over Reichenbach Falls and then, absurdly, have to resurrect him in a later story.

“Sh-Boom! The Explosion of Rock ‘n’ Roll – Clay Cole

I can’t think of anything of the top of my head that’s going to be a smash hit, but if Stephanie Meyer (sp?) ever gets that one book finished, it’ll generate huge sales. (I don’t read the books; most of what I know comes from here—and it’s hilarious.)

Possibly whatever Neil Gaiman is working on.

@Anon_Jihad, you may have the right of it! After Coraline and The Graveyard Book, he has definitely become more in the public eye than he was before.

@evegrimm American Gods danced all over my face and made me beg for mercy. Neil Gaiman may be a bit overrated, but has earned his status far more than Meyer or Rowling have, with very quality literature.

Pshaw, Gaiman isn’t overrated. :D
In all seriousness, though, what makes you think that? (not trolling, genuinely curious)

I think Gaiman needs to write a vampire book, sort of “in response” to the massive influx of vampire fiction out there. And it needs to be awesome, like Sunshine or Peeps.

@Jeruba God, I really hope you’re wrong.

I adored Harry Potter, which is why I don’t want them to touch it. The story ended and it ended well. Sometimes things are better when they have a finite ending.

I hope so too, @drdoombot, even though I admit I do have some questions I’d like to see answered. But when was anything ever really popular that wasn’t then milked to death? Promoters and investors won’t want to let up as long as there’s still an unspent nickel out there that could be sucked out of someone’s pocket.

Are you telling me that if a book by Rowling comes out chronicling HP’s first year as an Auror, you won’t buy it and read it? And then—what if she refuses to take it any further and her publisher hires someone else to pick up the franchise and carry it on, like the Curious George series and the Robert Ludlum™ books that Ludlum didn’t actually write?

The final book in the Inheritance Cycle might be out in late 2010. Then again, it might not. That should be a big one whenever it comes out.

@Jeruba I admit, it would be tempting to read more Harry Potter, but it will dilute the story to add more entries. As a comic book fan, I know quite well how easily a series can devolve when you don’t let the story finish and you run out of original ideas. Just in the past 5–10 years, we’ve seen the return of characters who have been dead for many years, including Jason Todd (the second Robin), Barry Allen (the second Flash), Hal Jordan (the second Green Lantern) and even Bucky Barnes (Captain America’s sidekick), who died in the 1940’s! I don’t mean to give a comic book history lesson here, but all of these characters had meaningful deaths that were reversed due to fan demands and the chance at profit. The stories where they died are meaningless now. Imagine if Voldemort were brought back for “one last battle?” Or how about Dumbledore? Cedric Diggory? Any of these would ruin the “original” Harry Potter run.

It saddens me to think of how easily profit can co-opt creativity.

I’m just waiting for Philip Pullman’s next book to come out, not sure when that will be exactly, but if it’s next year I reckon lots of people will want to get hold of it.

@shrubbery, although I, too, want Philip Pullman to publish The Book of Dust, he’s been promising it to fans since The Amber Spyglass was published, in 2000 (?). He has no news on his site and hasn’t said a word for a while, yet.

It’s sort of annoying.

Damn, I only just found out about it so I didn’t realise he’d been promising it for so long! I kind of want him to hurry up but I don’t want him to rush it :P

‘Presidential Assasination for Dummies’

and, conversely, How to Get a Troll Banned in Three Easy Steps.

Heh…