At the weekend, the Sunday Times had a major profile of the ‘James Patterson Company’…. because he’s all about business, the writing really isn’t that important.
He crafts a 30-page outline, a co-writer fills in the gaps and, after Patterson’s final polish, another commercial success hits the slipway. He is open about collaboration and the readers don’t mind, judging by the 165m thrillers he has sold in 18 countries. Recently signed up by Random House, he has set up a new production line for a further eight novels. None of this weighs too heavily on the millionaire as he contemplates plots in the wood-panelled office at his Florida mansion in Palm Beach, where he lives with his wife Sue and their son Jack, 10. Visitors find him amiable, chatty and unpretentious.
I’m never going to read one of his novels but I think he has to admired for his marketing and planning skills. Imagine if he ran a major publisher?
Who’d have thought a first edition of The Thomas Berryman Number would have a $2,750 asking price?