Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How James Patterson became the world’s best-selling author

newyorker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 89 posts

Re: How James Patterson became the world’s best-selling author

#21

Post by edflsafoiewq »

Emma_Goldman wrote: post #13

The title is misleading. Patterson is not the living author to have sold the most books. JK Rowling has sold more, and perhaps others (Akira Toriyama, Danielle Steel). [1] I think the claim is that he is currently selling the most per year. Oddly, I had never heard of Patterson. How is that possible given his apparent cultural dominance? [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_fiction...

Every book store and library I've ever been in has a whole "James Patterson" shelf. Easy to find, since his name is the biggest thing on the spine. You can somehow just tell they're garbage without even taking one off the shelf.

Re: How James Patterson became the world’s best-selling author

#22

Post by boomboomsubban »

Emma_Goldman wrote: post #13

The title is misleading. Patterson is not the living author to have sold the most books. JK Rowling has sold more, and perhaps others (Akira Toriyama, Danielle Steel). [1] I think the claim is that he is currently selling the most per year. Oddly, I had never heard of Patterson. How is that possible given his apparent cultural dominance? [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_fiction...

>I think the claim is that he is currently selling the most per year

They're making an oddly specific claim

>Publishers Weekly has determined that he is the best-selling author of the past seventeen years.

Re: How James Patterson became the world’s best-selling author

#23

Post by watwut »

hmate9 wrote: post #15

For those unfamiliar: His books are quite generic but provide some fun for the casual reader. He has released over 200 books and sold over 400 million copies. He uses a team of ghostwriters to actually develop the books/series after he gives the detailed outlines of the characters and the stories. His success is mainly how he has been able to scale up and release so many books with his name attached.

So basically, he is not a writer, but more of manager and product owner for massive team of writers?

Re: How James Patterson became the world’s best-selling author

#25

Post by Emma_Goldman »

edflsafoiewq wrote: post #21
Emma_Goldman wrote: post #13

The title is misleading. Patterson is not the living author to have sold the most books. JK Rowling has sold more, and perhaps others (Akira Toriyama, Danielle Steel). [1] I think the claim is that he is currently selling the most per year. Oddly, I had never heard of Patterson. How is that possible given his apparent cultural dominance? [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_fiction...

Every book store and library I've ever been in has a whole "James Patterson" shelf. Easy to find, since his name is the biggest thing on the spine. You can somehow just tell they're garbage without even taking one off the shelf.

> You can somehow just tell they're garbage without even taking one off the shelf.

For better or worse, I honestly think I just blank out these kinds of books. Still, I would have thought that the existence of a living author selling in the hundreds of millions would trickle down to me through one cultural tributary or another. Maybe through articles like this, through a blockbuster film adaptation, through word of mouth, etc.

Re: How James Patterson became the world’s best-selling author

#27

Post by suction »

watwut wrote: post #23
hmate9 wrote: post #15

For those unfamiliar: His books are quite generic but provide some fun for the casual reader. He has released over 200 books and sold over 400 million copies. He uses a team of ghostwriters to actually develop the books/series after he gives the detailed outlines of the characters and the stories. His success is mainly how he has been able to scale up and release so many books with his name attached.

So basically, he is not a writer, but more of manager and product owner for massive team of writers?

Yes, he's using SCRUM to make sure all creativity and spirit is lost to "the process".

Re: How James Patterson became the world’s best-selling author

#28

Post by zmmmmm »

irrational wrote: post #2

I’ve never read any Patterson books. Anyone have a recommendation of a single one to read to get a feel for what makes him a best seller?

I think it's not so much a single book, but that he writes long series of them with well developed characters that bridge across them. There is one series (Alex Cross) I'm listening to on audio book now that has at least 29 books in it.

None of them are super great but its like comfort food ... you finish one and the familiar characters are all there when you go back for the next. So this is the secret to have people buying huge numbers of books ... you always want the next one in the series.

Mind you, I borrow these for background listening / when I go to sleep at night. I would never spend the time on them as a focused activity.

Re: How James Patterson became the world’s best-selling author

#29

Post by nickstinemates »

irrational wrote: post #2

I’ve never read any Patterson books. Anyone have a recommendation of a single one to read to get a feel for what makes him a best seller?

Along Came a Spider if you like crime books. It's pretty decent. There's a movie with Morgan Freeman if you'd prefer to go that route.

Re: How James Patterson became the world’s best-selling author

#30

Post by mg »

Interesting.

I run the literature recommendations site Gnooks:

https://www.gnooks.com

And Patterson is on position 39 of the most like authors.

Position 1 is held by Joanne K. Rowling:

https://www.gnooks.com/top

I wonder what that says about the demographics of Gnooks. Maybe that the users are younger.

Post reply on HN