

James Patterson Inc: A look at the author who outsells King & Grisham - adamhowell
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/magazine/24patterson-t.html

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10ren
Robert Kiyosaki (rich dad poor dad) has a story where he's interviewed about
his book by journalist who's an excellent writer, and having trouble breaking
in. He advises her to take a copy writing course, to help her sell her work.
She objects that she became took journalism so she wouldn't have to be a
saleswoman. He points to his book jacket's blurb which says "best selling".
"It doesn't say best writing," he explains. "You are an excellent writer; I'm
terrible at writing, but good at selling." "It's not fair," she sulks.

niche marketing: _Instead of simply going to the biggest book-buying markets,
he focused his early tours and advertising efforts on cities where his books
were selling best: like a politician aspiring to higher office, he was shoring
up his base._

pragmatism: _I’m less interested in sentences now and more interested in
stories._

kill your darlings: _“I don’t believe in showing off,” Patterson says of his
writing. “Showing off can get in the way of a good story.”_ (Samuel Johnson:
Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you
think is particularly fine, strike it out.)

 _a marketing genius who has cynically maneuvered his way to best-sellerdom by
writing remedial novels that pander to the public’s basest instincts._ Sounds
pretty accurate.

If writing is intended to match the human story-processing system, analogously
to how image compression attempts to match human visual system, then the
popularity of writing (aside from sales due to marketing) is a measure of its
match to what an ideal story really _is_ (i.e. how humans perceive stories).
In this view, a story is not an end in itself, but an attempt to communicate;
in contrast, "literature" has become its own subject. It is solipsistic.
Therefore, it is _possible_ that this guy's writing will become studied in the
future (as his editor said of Dickens), because it is based on reality outside
of itself.

 _Just remember that when you go over the mountain to work in the morning,
you’ve got to be singing_ Yeah, I agree with the article's followup on this,
that it's not clear that he loves what he does for its own sake, or because
he's successful at it. I think he must deeply enjoy it in some sense, because
he has tremendous energy for it. Or perhaps he enjoys it _because_ he gives it
energy and meaning? It reminds me of the conflicting advice posted on HN,
about "do what you love" vs. "love what you do". The latter is certainly
essential, for even in loving what you do, _some_ bits of it you won't love
and you need to do them anyway. And, as apes, we enjoy dominant status for its
own sake (aka "success"), regardless of how we got there. I think enjoying how
we get there does matter; but it doesn't have to be entirely for its own sake.

I love these long nyt articles.

~~~
anigbrowl
_I love these long nyt articles._

Me too, but if everyone followed Mr Kiyosaki's (sincere and wise) advice, then
we wouldn't get them, _viz._ Seth Godin's capsule-blogging approach of 'one
good idea presented in 3 quick paragraphs'.

------
Flemlord
I found that horrifying. All I could think of while reading the article was
what if this model takes off? Publishing houses put books together by hiring
one meta-author to write an outline for a book, then bid out the actual
writing to junior authors. The publishing houses would own the rights to the
characters, series, and future books. When a particular series takes off,
their only expense is hiring junior authors to "fill in the blanks" on future
novels. Sounds immensely more profitable for publishing houses for the current
model. Why would a publishing house develop individual authors if the new meta
model is so much more profitable?

As interesting as I found the business model, if the end product is anything
like Patterson's novels, I fear for the book industry. Would Harry Potter have
been written by a down-on-her-luck JK Rowling if she could have gotten work as
a ghost author for a publishing house? I could see this being a good thing,
but I like my books and the direction scares me.

~~~
lt
The author doesn't even need to be alive for that:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Sheldon%27s_Mistress_of_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Sheldon%27s_Mistress_of_the_Game)

~~~
Semiapies
Or exist, in the case of the Stratemeyer Syndicate.

------
byrneseyeview
Here's an ad by Patterson:

<http://www.infomarketingblog.com/write/>

And here's an interview with someone who responded to that ad, worked at JWT,
and _also_ decided to start writing novels, instead:

<http://www.infomarketingblog.com/mystery-writer-interview/>

~~~
10ren
That interview showed me that "Die Hard" resurrected the dead metaphor of
"diehard". This is a powerful way to capture attention. I might also watch
"Lethal Weapon", for it's 3/3min dialog/action structure (and to observe how
engaged/entertained I am).

------
Adrenalist
Very interesting that he didn't become a full-time author until 20 years after
his book was published. I'm always interested in how successful people became
that way.

Mr. Patterson was born in 1947, published his first book at 29 years old
(1976) and didn't become a full time writer until 49 years old (1996). He's
been writing an average of 2 novels per year since then (!) and is getting
more prolific with age. Considering that some people never get around to
"finishing their novel", I find these data points amazing.

What are you doing today that will be news worthy 20 years from now?

~~~
ErrantX
> What are you doing today that will be news worthy 20 years from now?

Writing a novel. :)

Seriously though; for every successful writer there are 10's of failed ones.
Most get "found" some time after they are first published (fad's like Harry
Potter et al tend to be exceptions).

If you have a reasonable amount of writing talent and the spare time to put it
down into a book then it's worth doing as a bet against being noticed at some
time in the future.

~~~
electromagnetic
> Writing a novel. :)

Ditto. I've worked in writing, and I've been trying to hone my writing skills
with novels. Consistency is a key issue in writing. My goal in life is to
publish a novel, not a short story so I never practised short stories. I'm now
looking to sell some short stories to qualify for SFWA while I'm working on
the book I hope is my debut.

I'm 21 and I've worked in writing since ~16. I fail to see how I can become a
successful author unless I try to get myself out there. Perhaps my work will
click and I'll hit the big time, however that's an aim for later in the game.

~~~
ErrantX
Im 23 and mine has been on/off writing since about 18. Mostly I've written
short ideas/chapters and it's only recently they became a cohesive plot :)

Got some ideas for short stories - but writing them has always eluded me!

------
ryanwaggoner
Good copywriting advice:

 _“I have a saying,” Patterson told me. “If you want to write for yourself,
get a diary. If you want to write for a few friends, get a blog. But if you
want to write for a lot of people, think about them a little bit. What do they
like? What are their needs? A lot of people in this country go through their
days numb. They need to be entertained. They need to_ feel _something.”_

~~~
euroclydon
"A lot of people in this country go through their days numb."

Man, we rock at _treating the symptom_. I really admire anyone who can help
people avoid that numb feeling to begin with.

~~~
ryanwaggoner
Like who? Are there good examples of people who have done this on a mass scale
AND done more than offer empty hope and unfulfilled promises to do so
(politicians)?

~~~
drenei
It depends on what problem you are talking about. Something as general as
'numbness', has a multitude of specific underlying causes; to treat those
causes you need specific solutions. If you believe that psychotherapy can be
effective in treating underlying causes, as I do, than individuals who have
helped develop different specific psychotherapy methods have treated (directly
& indirectly) causes on a mass scale.

------
10ren
Single Page:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/magazine/24patterson-t.htm...](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/magazine/24patterson-t.html?pagewanted=all)

~~~
joshfinnie
I know this is not the place for this, but I really wish submitters would
start submitting the one-page articles as the standard.

~~~
adamhowell
Yeah, sorry, I realized my mistake too late. I was going to delete it and
resubmit but it already had a few points.

Being able to edit a URL for 15 minutes after submitting would probably help.

~~~
10ren
You can edit it (I just tested it - don't know how long it's editable though).

~~~
adamhowell
When I edit I can only update the title, not the URL.

(Which makes sense, b/c someone could submit something that gets voted to the
frontpage and then change it to a spam link, etc. But sometimes it's
inconvenient.)

~~~
10ren
Sorry, you're right of course.

------
adharmad
Terrible writer, but interesting and successful business model, including co-
writing with many authors.

~~~
kevingadd
His skill when it comes to writing may not actually be that relevant. These
days, people consume stories - and entertainment in general - in lots of
different forms: novels, newspaper articles, blog posts, tv series, video
games, forum threads and even tweets. Patterson may not be a master artisan
when it comes to prose, but he's clearly dedicated to the goal of giving
people interesting stories in an accessible format. Perhaps the use of co-
authors is his way of addressing deficiencies in his own abilities?

at least when it comes to video games, one's ability to write prose is not a
good indicator of an ability to tell interesting stories. I've personally seen
talented writers work hard to deliver an ultimately boring game story while
non-writers with a knack for plotting and creative thinking can come out of
left field with a game like Silent Hill 2 (widely recognized for a gripping
and unorthodox plot).

~~~
ErrantX
Agreed. One of my current fav authors - Raymond Feist - isn't a particularly
fine writer - but I really like his stories (especially the earlier ones) and
some of the characters (particularly the quirky ones) are utterly engaging.

At the end of the day a lot of what he writes is a bit awkward (and even weak
at times) but you dont often notice.

~~~
coliveira
On a similar token, a lot of "high literature" looks terrible when you
consider the story being told. My latest example is Virginia Woolf's "The
Wave". While it is a beautiful book, the story couldn't be more boring.

------
seiji
That page has two giant animated Google Search ads and one shows someone
typing "impress a french girl." Does Google have a macho sexually repressed
Asperger's marketing team too? I think I dislike Google a little more today
because of that ad.

Google is running scared in oblong circles and they don't know what to do
about it.

