His critics call him formulaic.
James Patterson shared that formula over the weekend at the Morristown Festival of Books.
So, if you want to sell 300 million thrillers, nonfiction titles and children’s works; make movies and Netflix series; and rival J.K. Rowling as the world’s richest author, watch these videos:
Video: How to conquer the publishing world: James Patterson at the Morristown Festival of Books:
Video: James Patterson fields questions at the 2022 Morristown Festival of Books:
In addition to being a prolific writer and a brilliant businessman, this former advertising executive is funny as hell. Which is no small feat inside a church!
Patterson, 75, spoke with Carol Fitzgerald, founder of The Book Report Network, and fielded questions inside St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. It was packed with fans who paid $60 a head to hear his closing session of the festival’s ninth edition.
Every ticket holder received a hardcover copy of Patterson’s thriller Blowback. Jenifer Santoro of Clinton also got a hug.
Choking up, she told Patterson how she bonded with her late dad over his novels. (See the second video.) Santoro and her father, Paul Pearsall, who died in 2020 at age 74, would read side by side on the beach, occasionally, pausing to exchange critiques.
Patterson is “straight, to the point, twisty. He doesn’t write purple prose. I love the pace of it,” Santoro, a realtor, said.
Patterson’s hug wasn’t the only pleasant surprise for her at Saturday’s talk.
“I wasn’t expecting him to be that funny,” Santoro said. “He was clever, funny, engaging, spunky. I liked his spunk.”
PATTERSON POINTERS:
ON WORK:
Booked into 2025, Paterson juggles so many projects, he probably was a circus performer in a prior life.
“I do not work for a living. I play for a living,” he insisted during his 50-minute session.
TRASH YOUR THESAURUS:
You need a distinctive style and voice to top the best-seller lists.
Patterson said his came together for Along Came a Spider, the 1993 crime thriller that launched his Alex Cross series. This forensic psychologist has returned in more than two dozen sequels and a movie starring Morgan Freeman.
Fleshed out from a 380-page outline, Spider is where Patterson said he honed his knack for short chapters and a “colloquial” voice that would be “disastrous if everyone wrote that way.
“I’m telling you a story, I tell it in human language,” Patterson explained. “I know some big words, mostly they’re not appropriate. As human beings we tend not to use those…generally, I’m not against them, but I don’t use them very much.”
Echoing what every serious musician knows, he added: “What you take out is more important than what you leave in.”
COLLABORATE WITH STARS:
Some critics–you know who you are–have rapped Patterson for collaborating, as if co-authors are the enemy.
But who could say no to Bill Clinton (The President is Missing, The President’s Daughter) or Dolly Parton (Run, Rose, Run)?
After a long career in advertising (“I’ve been clean for 25 years!” promised the man behind “I’m a Toys ‘R’ Us kid”), Patterson knows what sells.
(For the record, Dolly is more fun than Bill. And Hillary would be president, with better marketing. “She’s warm, funny, down-to-earth, self-effacing, delightful. And that’s what they didn’t get,” Patterson said.)
In other words, co-writing is fun — when you get to pick your co-authors.
Patterson said he usually writes an outline of 60 to 80 pages, and then encourages the other person to “contribute.” Every couple of weeks, he takes a look.
“It’s scene by scene… usually, the ending will change,” he said. “You don’t know, and if you think you know it all, it probably really isn’t that good a book.”
SCAN THE HEADLINES:
Patterson’s antennae always are up for story ideas. The Jeffrey Epstein scandal became Filthy Rich. Blowback is a tale about a deranged president.
“Hey it could happen!” Patterson said, to a roar of laughter.
WATCH YOUR WORDS:
This did not come up in Patterson’s talk. In June, he ducked brickbats after telling a newspaper that white male writers are victims of reverse discrimination. (Surveys and audits have shown publishing is overwhelmingly white.)
Patterson quickly apologized, and last month gave $1.3 million to Howard University, a historically Black school, to endow writing scholarships. He has donated more than $100 million to literacy and literature causes, according to USA Today.
DON’T START WITH SHAKESPEARE:
Not if you want your child to love reading.
Patterson is passionate about child literacy; his Jimmy imprint caters to kids.
Lamenting the death of Borders bookstores, he said chains like Target and Walmart don’t carry entire children’s book series—which is what fledgling readers crave.
“They want stories, and we just need to do that. At the point when they have the tools, then you can start pushing them” towards the Bard.
“There are plenty of books out there they’ll like, plenty of stories. But you’ve got to give them stories. It’s not ‘Choo Choo Train Went Up…’ They don’t want that,” not beyond age 2, he said.
Patterson chose a film analogy.
“If they taught movies in school — which wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world — they’d learn about structure, character development.
“But if they start with Ingmar Bergman movies, they’d say, ‘Oh, I don’t like movies.’”
