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

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

#71

Post by redshirtrob »

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?

Read the first "Alex Cross" book.

It's...not very good, but it's a pretty good example of Patterson's work. I read the first 3-4 books in the Alex Cross series, but gave up after finding no growth or improvement on the character or the author.

I think you'll find his popularity similar to what makes lots of other things popular. His books are rather bland, but not quite boring. He doesn't pack a lot of exposition between the action so the plot moves forward. Unfortunately this often makes the characters seem quite stupid as they rush to action rather than ponder the situation. I find this unrealistic and annoying, especially given Alex Cross's profession.

Obviously, I'm not a fan.

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

#72

Post by groby_b »

Emma_Goldman wrote: post #25
edflsafoiewq wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 m…

Kiss the Girls? Along came a spider? Both were pretty successful movies? (There was also Alex Cross, which was a flop)

But Patterson is formulaic. If it's not your formula, you won't notice. Other cultural tributaries are the book aisles in your local Walgreens/CVS, which are overflowing with Patterson. But, again, if you're not in that audience, you won't see it.

And if your attitude is "I blank out on these kinds of books", your friends will know, and they won't bother to inform you. (Or they have told you once or twice, and you blanked, and they stopped).

There is so much media content out there that unless you happen to be interested in a particular niche, you can miss pretty large events.

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

#73

Post by [deleted] »

nsoonhui wrote: post #39
routerl wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that unusual. Tom Clancy has been doing it for decades, and before that "Carolyn Keene" (the collective pseudonym of every Nancy Drew writer). It's a brand. This brand happens to be presented as a person, a single author. But, as with every brand, scratching the surface reveals more to the story.

And "Franklin W. Dixon" ( Hardy Boys).

[deleted]

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

#74

Post by gumby »

cs137 wrote: post #47
quickthrower2 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is fine. It makes him a 'unicorn' in software business parlance.

I would say that it's bad for writing, though. Ultimately, what he's doing exacerbates the absurdly lopsided distribution of visibility and rewards that writers experience. Most books sell horribly, and not for reasons of low quality but because discoverability is a huge problem, even in today's world of recommendation algorithms and the like. There are a good number of "famous" writers who live in poverty, because t…

> I would say that it's bad for writing, though. Ultimately, what he's doing exacerbates the absurdly lopsided distribution of visibility and rewards that writers experience.

How do you think famous painters and other artists work, even (or especially) the "old masters" (e.g. Rembrandt van Rijn)?

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

#76

Post by davio »

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...

Interesting that he is open about using ghost writers while Danielle Steel still claims to work around the clock authoring her nonstop stream of novels.

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

#77

Post by zebraflask »

cs137 wrote: post #47
quickthrower2 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is fine. It makes him a 'unicorn' in software business parlance.

I would say that it's bad for writing, though. Ultimately, what he's doing exacerbates the absurdly lopsided distribution of visibility and rewards that writers experience. Most books sell horribly, and not for reasons of low quality but because discoverability is a huge problem, even in today's world of recommendation algorithms and the like. There are a good number of "famous" writers who live in poverty, because t…

The $10,000 number is a little too high.

I'd say it's easy to start spending and keep spending the bucks if you're aiming to duplicate a conventional print run from a large press, with no expense spared, but it isn't necessary.

Sites like Canva will take care of cover art, and print on demand presses like Blurb let you start with a very reasonably priced short run and will hook you up with a variety of distribution networks.

You can quite literally publish a professionally packaged book for a few hundred dollars or less.

There's also Amazon, but I've never tried it so can't comment on it.

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

#78

Post by kbelder »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #22
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.

Which obviously means someone else is the best selling author of the past eighteen years.

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

#79

Post by nickstinemates »

kriro wrote: post #48
nickstinemates wrote: post #33

The books are formulaic, they're pretty straightforward, the plot twists are sometimes easy to predict. I've listened to / read over 25 of the Alex Cross books (the main character of his most popular book series,) I actually like the characters and their personality and their continuity throughout the series. It's not the best prose. I read a lot. I think of it like watching Law & Order or some other cop TV show. I m…

To be fair, most crime/thrillers are formulaic and if you don't follow the standard structure it won't exactly be easy to get published. There's the basic structure, usually three acts and certain expectations the audience has (fake ending/final twist, speech praising the villain, visit to the villains lair etc). A pretty good book that covers this is: "The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know" where the author goes th…

All very good points, and if you ever want to read/listen to the books that defined the genre and formula, pick up A Study in Scarlet, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (or one of the numerous short stories that accompanied his works.)

What I like about the short stories in particular on audible is the stories are quick and digestible and novel. Perfect for a bedtime story or a quick car ride. In particular, this[1] one is worth the 1 credit if you're an audible subscriber. Stephen Fry for 68 hours. Hard to beat.

1: https://www.audible.com/pd/Sherlock-Holmes-Audiobook/B06WLMW...

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

#80

Post by nickstinemates »

cs137 wrote: post #47
quickthrower2 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is fine. It makes him a 'unicorn' in software business parlance.

I would say that it's bad for writing, though. Ultimately, what he's doing exacerbates the absurdly lopsided distribution of visibility and rewards that writers experience. Most books sell horribly, and not for reasons of low quality but because discoverability is a huge problem, even in today's world of recommendation algorithms and the like. There are a good number of "famous" writers who live in poverty, because t…

> I would say that it's bad for writing, though.

What a weird take. Especially in this day and age. Where news stories are built on tweets, we're engaged in a comment section of a super niche topic, there's a proliferation of a lifetime of video uploaded to youtube every day. many lifetimes streamed live on twitch.

I don't think this impacts writing at all. I think you could argue the opposite point. The amount of people reading books is on the decline. But the amount of people reading and engaging with textual content is on the rise.

Traditional publishing is nearing end of life. What's the point?

My pov: The fate of all of these centralized institutions is the same, a mass proliferation of alternatives and as a result, less power, and ultimately, death.

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