JK Rowling vs Philip Pullman

Is there a formula to writing a best selling children's book? In this illustration of ESP linguistic analysis, J K Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is compared to Phillip Pullman's The Golden Compass. Both have been transcribed into ESP's bespoke software programme that identifies and scores defined language patterns and vocabularies.

As you may see from the analysis above, the software has identified and scored language patterns and vocabularies that we know from extensive research correlate with key aspects of gaining rapport, engaging with, persuading and motivating an audience.

The software suggests that Harry Potter is slightly more charismatic than Lyra as a character and the Philosopher's Stone storyline slightly more motivating. It's interesting that both are very similar in the way they use language to engage with and persuade an audience. Behind the content many of the linguistic constructions used are surprisingly similar. If this is a common theme for children's books then from this analysis it would be possible to analyse a pre-publication manuscript to determine the degree of match or mismatch it had linguistically to these two blockbusters. It's possible that subtle changes to mirror either the Harry Potter or Golden Compass styles could well increase its likelihood of success.