How Many Authors Do You See
I continue to be a tad confused by the James Patterson multi-person writing thing. According to USA Today, Patterson is set to introduce another co-author this week with the release of Step On A Crack. This is Patterson’s fifth co-author. When asked why he operates this way, he responded:
“They can’t keep up with me.” In fact, he says, “I’m not a fast writer. I struggle through the writing. I’m not a craftsman. I’m OK. I can get it done. But I know it’s not my strength.”
What is, he says, is his “amazing imagination.” He says the importance of his background in advertising and marketing is overblown. “In books or any business, advertising can work for a product once. But it can’t bring back customers if they don’t like it.”
Huh? Does this mean he views himself as an “idea man” and not a writer?
Now, kuddos do go to USA Today for mentioning Nora Roberts in an article about prolific bestselling authors. The mention went like this:
He has six novels coming out this year. Four were written with co-authors, including Step on a Crack (Little, Brown, $27.99), out Tuesday. Patterson also wrote or co-wrote eight novels among the 100 most popular books of 2006, based on USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list. Only Nora Roberts, queen of romance, and Dan Brown, best known for The Da Vinci Code, came close, each with four titles in the top 100.
There is a lost point in there somewhere about Patterson having all these co-authors and producing six books and Nora producing four without any help. But, I digress. My main confusion (and, yes, I have much confusion on the subject of Patterson) came from the idea that Patterson runs something called James Patterson Entertainment. Congrats to him for his success. Congrats to his co-authors. But the whole licensing-out-the-name thing seems strange to me.
How Patterson came to pick his newest co-author is kind of an interesting story. Rather than paraphrase, I’ll copy from USA Today:
They met a decade ago when [Michael] Ledwidge was a doorman in Manhattan, trying to publish his first novel. Both had been English majors at Manhattan College in the Bronx (Patterson, class of ‘69; Ledwidge ‘92), and the would-be novelist used that connection to ask Patterson for advice. Patterson helped him find an agent, and in 1998, Ledwidge’s The Narrowback was published by Grove Atlantic. He went on to publish two more crime novels. With three children, he kept his day job and eventually became a telephone repairman.
When Ledwidge asked Patterson to look at a draft of what he hoped would be his fourth novel, Patterson had a counteroffer: Would he be interested in collaborating on a novel Patterson had in mind?
Kind of kills all those stories you hear about how you’re not supposed to slide manuscripts under bathroom stall doors to editors or bother bestselling authors with your ideas. Seems to have worked for this guy. Since Patterson earned something like 30 million dollars last year, I’m guessing he has his finger on the pulse of something.
