What better way to sell a book, than to have a mogul of commuter fiction combine with a former US president? When you have sold millions of books on the back of your brand, I suppose the only thing left to do is find an even more recognisable mark — at the very least, you find a name worthy of a similar font size. Bill Clinton and James Patterson are co-authors — but who did the writing?
Reuse this content. He attended Manhattan College in the Bronx. He was enrolled in Vanderbilt's PhD English program but quit when he got a high draft number. According to an article in Vanity Fair , he went to work as a junior copywriter at J. Walter Thompson and was successful there. As he rose to eventually become the CEO for North America he made it his policy to never hire anyone he wouldn't like working with. He found sessions with female copywriters were more collaborative.
He delivers exhaustive notes and outlines that can run to 80 pages to his co-authors. The way the process usually works is that Patterson writes that detailed outline, and a co-author then drafts chapters. Patterson reads the draft, does revisions, and rewrites as necessary. Over time the number of rewrites goes down for each new collaborator.
These co-authors are paid by Patterson. In over 40 years he has produced over titles and sold more than million copies. He has two editors, three additional full-time Hachette employees and their assistants devoted to him; a brand manager who moves Patterson's adult books through the production process, a marketing director for the young adult titles, and an overall sales manager.
Patterson remains intimately involved in the publication of his books. He handles all of his advertising and monitors every other step of the publication process, from jacket design to the timing of book releases to placement in retail stores.
To maintain the pace of production, Patterson now uses co-authors on nearly all his books. He functions in part as an executive producer and in part as a head writer. It's his vision that is set out for each book or series. This kind of collaboration is found in advertising agencies or the writing rooms of television shows. But books have traditionally been the product of one person's sensibility and imagination rendered in a singular style and voice.
A colleague and I applied stylometric methods to the work of Patterson in order to form an impression of how much he contributes to the writing of his books in terms of the actual words used. Is it mainly an endorsement, a valuable moniker which generates sales?
Or is he properly seen as an author, just one who is attracted to the possibilities of narrative structure over those of language? Critics tend to value style over structure, yet the public are clearly drawn towards the latter. Is plot what makes an author, and style an artist? Structure is rich in creative potential, and plot was essential to the novel long before movements like high modernism sought to subvert the popular by privileging style.
At the same time, the role of the critic, and indeed, the reader, is to appreciate, interpret, and communicate that which is hidden in the nuances of artistic expression.
One is unlikely to find an abundance of such nuances in a text that is all plot. Paetro and Patterson have known each other for decades, actually; like him, she got her start in advertising.
Bored, he started writing on the job, and when he asked one of his old college professors for help finding an agent, the professor suggested he contact fellow alumni of the school—James Patterson. Ledwidge did, expecting no response, but Patterson called to say he loved the book and would send it on to his agent. Ledwidge published two more novels after that, but he freely admits that while he got good reviews, the sales were slow.
He stayed in touch with Patterson, however, who eventually asked him to try co-writing something. Ledwidge has co-authored eleven more books with Patterson, including a few standalone novels.
Sullivan has co-authored five of the Private series with James Patterson, which makes him pretty successful right there. The Rabbit Factory , in fact, came this close to becoming a TV series on TNT; screenwriter Allan Loeb wrote a pilot which was produced, but the network declined to pick it up as a series.
Like Paetro, Karp knew Patterson from his career in advertising, and when Patterson suggested they work on Kill Me if You Can , Karp was happy to dive in—and was rewarded with his first 1 bestselling book. His original series still has plenty of fans, though; Karp says he wrote Terminal in response to reader demand. There are no guarantees in publishing—you can get a big advance, garner rave reviews, and sell very, very poorly.
The closest thing to a guarantee you can get, in fact, is to team up with someone like Patterson.
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