James Patterson, Inc.

James Patterson

There’s a great article in the NY Times Magazine this week about James Patterson, the country’s biggest selling author.  I had seen his name in the bookstores, but holy cannoli, I had no idea how big Patterson was.  I think I have a new literary hero, even though I’ve yet to read one of his books.

There are many different ways to catalog Patterson’s staggering success. Here are just a few: Since 2006, one out of every 17 novels bought in the United States was written by James Patterson. He is listed in the latest edition of “Guinness World Records,” published last fall, as the author with the most New York Times best sellers, 45, but that number is already out of date: he now has 51 — 35 of which went to No. 1.

That’s insane.  Patterson outsells Stephen King, John Grisham, and Dan Brown combined. In his prior work life, Patterson worked in advertising.  He put his expertise to good use by promoting one of his early books, and the rest is history.  He now co-authors most of his books and “wrote” nine books in 2009.

I just picked up a Patterson novel yesterday.  The chapters are really short.  Really short.  It’s about 300 pages, and there are at least 100 chapters.  I feel like a genius–I read for 30 minutes last night and finished around 20 chapters.  It was almost like being the guy who inspired Rain Man, who could read facing pages at the same time.  The story, so far, is compelling.  I’m usually not into these kinds of books, but I find myself turning the pages quite easily.

I wonder if he’d be interesting in partnering with one of the writers on this blog.  Maybe he could corner the Asian American market.  Or the Rice Chasah market.  All I can say is that this guy is selling like mad.