James Patterson: 'Publishers are lost in the Middle Ages' He outsells JK Rowling, John Grisham and Dan Brown...combined. But James Patterson, the world's most prolific author, doesn't even consider himself a writer. So how has he built an empire that rakes in $1.5bn a year?
By Henry Sutton writing in The Indpendent on Sunday, 14 September 2008
The figures, as James Patterson might describe them, are awesome. He's had over 35 New York Times bestsellers, including five at the top spot, in a single year. He currently outsells JK Rowling, John Grisham and Dan Brown put together. This year he's on target to sell more than 20m books in the US alone, adding to his $1.5bn in global sales, making him the world's bestselling author by a mile.
Oh, and he's also the most borrowed author from UK libraries.
Amazingly, James Patterson doesn't think of himself as a writer. Indeed, in person he's not remotely awesome, nor flashy. Sporting standard-issue polo shirt, chinos and deck shoes, he's softly spoken and surprisingly modest. "I recently had [my 61st] birthday party," he says, "and asked 16 friends; some went back all the way to kindergarten, and the consensus, which I really like, was that I'm still the same asshole that I always was. There didn't seem to be a lot of airs. I don't think of myself as a writer. I think of myself as [my wife] Sue's pal and [my son] Jack's friend, and I like to scribble. That seems to be the truth about who I am."
Amazingly, James Patterson doesn't think of himself as a writer. Indeed, in person he's not remotely awesome, nor flashy. Sporting standard-issue polo shirt, chinos and deck shoes, he's softly spoken and surprisingly modest. "I recently had [my 61st] birthday party," he says, "and asked 16 friends; some went back all the way to kindergarten, and the consensus, which I really like, was that I'm still the same asshole that I always was. There didn't seem to be a lot of airs. I don't think of myself as a writer. I think of myself as [my wife] Sue's pal and [my son] Jack's friend, and I like to scribble. That seems to be the truth about who I am."
Read the full story at The Independent online.
'he gives bonuses, but not royalties. "Mostly," he says, "they're easy to work with. When I was at [J Walter] Thompson I would hire only one kind of person – talented and nice to be around. The end. No shitheads. I continued with that." He also makes it clear, at the very beginning, who's in charge: "Ultimately this is a James Patterson novel." '
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, my qualm with him is greed and selfishness - imagine bringing out 10 novels in a year to feed your empire, when you could afford to write 1 or 2 and give a few quality writers some shelf space!