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This past weekend, James Patterson took out ads on the cover of PW, in The New York Times Book Review, and in Kirkus asking the questions "Who will save our books? Our bookstores? Our libraries?" and listing a number of classic books like The Sound and the Fury and A Wrinkle in Time. PW spoke with Patterson by phone to find out his motivation for placing the ads.

"This is hopefully starting a dialogue," Patterson said. "I hate sitting around and talking; I like to do things." 

Specifically, Patterson expressed frustration at the lack of advancement of the future of books discussion. The discussion, Patterson said, is stuck in a rut and there are ways everyone can chip in to fix it. "Publishers are sitting around saying: 'Woe is me.' Get in attack mode," Patterson said. The problem continues with media coverage, as Patterson said the same article about the book business being in trouble--with little information beyond that and little mention of possible solutions--is being written over and over. "That article is not worth running," he said. "The New York Times needs to wake the fuck up."
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And from Publishers Lunch:
Salon follows up with James Patterson on his NYTBR ad in which he wondered "where [is the federal government] on the important subject of books? Or, if the answer is state and local government, where are they? Is any state doing anything" to "save" books, bookstores and libraries. Asked what specifics he would like to see governments take, Patterson says: "I haven't thought about it but I’m sure there are things that can be done. There might be tax breaks, there might be limitations on the monopolies in the book business. We haven’t gotten into laws that should or shouldn’t be done in terms of the internet. I'm not sure what needs to happen, but right now, nothing's happening."

He also notes that part of the problem is that "I don't think we have a real strong spokesperson in the publishing community, someone who can stand up. If they were, they got distracted by lawsuits [against Amazon and publishing houses]. That scares publishers, as it should. It doesn't really matter. I'm stepping up a little. But it'd be nice if it was the head of a publishing company