Friday, April 15, 2016

World's best-selling author says that 'publishing' and 'innovation' belong in the same sentence

James Patterson was awarded the L.A. Times Book Prize Innovator's Award at the L.A. Times Book Prizes on Saturday. This is a transcript of his acceptance speech.
Hi, I’m Stephen King. [laughter] You know, it’s a long, long way from Newburgh, N.Y., where I grew up – which was recently voted the sixth most violent small town in America – to this stage. We’ve all made our journeys, and mine has been a wild one.

Before tonight, my L.A. highlight reel consisted of that cartoon cameo on "The Simpsons." That was my big moment. It started with Marge Simpson on the beach; she’s reading one of my books and says, “Oh I just love James Patterson.” Then we see me riding on a white horse behind Marge on the beach, and then we cut and Marge is on the back of the horse, we’re kind of cuddling, schmoozing, whatever. Then an alarm goes off – the next scene is Marge in her bedroom. And Homer walks in, and Homer says, “That was great last night, Marge, but why did you keep calling me James?” [laughter]

Some people would say, to some extent rightly, that “publishing” and “innovation” don’t belong in the same sentence. And that’s what I think makes this award so interesting and so vital -- in spite of the fact that I’m getting it tonight.   MORE

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