Books, books, and more books from Patterson
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/books/09arts-YESJAMESPATT_BRF.html
James Patterson fans rejoice. Yesterday Hatchett Book Group announced that they are signing Patterson on for a shockingly large book deal. Seventeen books to be exact.
This has got to be one of the biggest publishing deals of all time. I tried to look up if that was a record but couldn’t come across anything. It seems rare that most authors even publish that many books total, let alone get signed for very many books in advance. I know hearing about anything over a couple seems to be a big deal.
Even more shocking/amazing is the fact that this book deal is only suppose to cover through 2012. That means basically a new book every month or two. Absolutely crazy. I can’t even imagine being about to write that fast. It would sure be nice but wow. Luckily Patterson already has lots of different series to add to. I would imagine that would make it a little easier than trying to write them all about one character or on the other hand, all about different characters.
I personally haven’t read anything by Patterson yet even though I’m pretty sure my dad and grandmother are fans. Have you read any of his stuff? Which book would you suggest to me? Do you think he is going to be able to bust out that many books in that short of time?
James Patterson doesn’t really write his own books anymore. He writes the outlines and collaborates with other authors to finish them. On top of that, his books are pretty formulaic so they aren’t tough to churn out.
A good pulp writer back in the day could write a book or two a month. John Creasy wrote over 400 novels during his career. And romance authors these days can put out quite a few books as well.
I read one Patterson 15 years ago or so. It was decent. Not so great that I’d run out to buy every book he writes though. I don’t read a lot of thrillers though, so I probably won’t make an effort to read him again.