Many authors publish a new book every few years, some less frequently. James Patterson easily tops them all. Around half a dozen more books by him are to be published by June alone, including thrillers, children’s books and his first autobiography. Sometimes he works on up to 30 projects at the same time, he recently told the “Guardian”. “A little Hollywood, some children’s books, some non-fiction. It’s not too much for me.” He turns 75 on Tuesday.
The author has already published more than 300 books in total, which have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide. Patterson writes a large part of his works together with co-authors – but the basic ideas always come from him. “I have so many ideas. I have a big file called ‘Clever Ideas’ that’s so big I’ll never get through it.” Recently, Patterson also has several prominent co-authors. He has just released “Rose, Run, Rose” together with country musician Dolly Parton – as a book and album by the “Jolene” singer.
He has already released two collaborations with former US President Bill Clinton, most recently “The President’s Daughter” last year. The predecessor “The President Is Missing” has already sold several million copies. “Bill and I have become friends and that’s nice,” says Patterson.
The Democrat once gave him a humidor for his birthday. “He knows I don’t smoke, so I said, ‘Bill, you’re the cigar expert – do I put chocolate or gum cigars in the humidor?’ And he said, ‘Oh, definitely gum. At our age, Jim, we need to train our teeth. “We have fun. I see the world through the eyes of a little boy from the small town of Newburgh, New York, who is now talking to the former President.” Clinton publicly praises the author as a “master storyteller”.
Patterson is also said to be well acquainted with former Republican President Donald Trump, who awarded him the “National Humanities Medal” in 2019 and who has also publicly mentioned and praised him from time to time. Most recently, however, the author was critical of Trump’s term in office. “A lot of bad things happened there, I don’t understand.”
Patterson has actually always been a loner and an outsider in his industry. He feels “uncomfortable” in a room full of writers, editors and literary critics, the author said a few years ago when he received an award for his life’s work and commitment to libraries at the prestigious US National Book Awards. “I am the elephant in the room, the Big Mac in this fine restaurant here.”
Patterson may not be as well known as Stephen King, Dan Brown or John Grisham – but Patterson tops all his colleagues in a category that is not entirely unimportant: book sales. The US National Book Foundation calls Patterson the “best-selling author in the world”, and in the Guinness Book of Records he is the author with the most works on the New York Times bestseller list. In US bookstores there is often even a separate Patterson shelf with only books by the author, some of which have conquered the bestseller lists in Germany as well.
However, numerous critics disparagingly categorize Patterson’s works as trivial fiction. Colleague King called him a “terribly bad writer” a few years ago, but Patterson is undeterred. “The world would be terrible if everyone had the same opinion.” He doesn’t see himself as a “terribly bad writer”. “I love to write. I’m very quick and a good storyteller. I’m not that interested in the art of writing.”
The books have made Patterson so rich that he’s now in his own league in that regard. Forbes magazine not only lists Patterson on its list of highest-earning writers, which he unquestionably leads, but also as number 15 on its list of highest-earning stars overall – with earnings of around $80 million in 2020 alone.
The author – who now lives with his wife Susan in chic Palm Beach, Florida, and their son Jack works in New York – originally came from a poor background. It was a long way from Newburgh to the National Book Awards, says Patterson. “Newburgh was a tough place, my father grew up in a poor house, my grandmother cleaned toilets and kitchens.” Patterson did well in school and eventually went on to study English literature.
After that, he took a job in an agency. “That was only because I wasn’t taken as a taxi driver.” Patterson also began writing crime novels on the side, but his first book was rejected by 31 publishers. “I still have a list of all the publishers who didn’t want my book.” When it finally got published, it won the Edgar Allen Poe award for best first work.
Even following so many books, Patterson says he still enjoys the work. “My grandfather drove a delivery truck with frozen groceries. I was allowed to come with him once a week and then he would always say to me: ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re a delivery truck driver or the President of the USA, in the morning when you go over the hill to work, you have to sing” – and that’s what I do.” The most important thing for him is to get people, and especially children, to read. “That’s the beauty of people telling me that I got their husband to read for the first time, or got someone else back to reading. All of a sudden they’re like, ‘This is fun. I enjoyed reading it – give me another book.””
(S E R V I C E – https://www.jamespatterson.com)
