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05-12-2017 09:42 PM - edited 05-13-2017 08:38 AM
@Oznell wrote:Wow, Colinka, I did not know that about James Patterson. Of course I know his name, but have not read him...
It's great to get the inside dope from a librarian. Please don't tell me that my favorite detective fiction writer, Sue Grafton, is some sort of "writing assembly line" too!
Somehow, I doubt that she is-- her voice seems so distinctively hers, and her fabled ear for dialogue is so consistently high from book to book, that I surmise she's a one-woman shop. Do tell.
There are lots of bogus authors, too many to mention here. But, some of my favorites who are still writing their own books are Jonathan and Faye Kellerman, Alexander McCall Smith, and Sue Grafton. By the way, the announcement has been made for the next book in Sue's series: It is "Y is for Yesterday." It should be out in August.
05-12-2017 10:15 PM
Hooray, Colinka, thanks for the heads-up. Can't believe she's bearing down on "Z" now...
05-13-2017 09:31 AM
Not a fan of either, so no I won't be buying the book. People have been complaining about Patterson not writing his own books for years. I have no doubt he has a lot of influence on what and how they're written. Can't imagine he tells someone to write him a book and then puts his name on it. There's much more to cowriters than that.
Sue Grafton's Y book has been available for pre order since Feb. I saw that Z will be her last book. Maybe she'll change her mind, but she said she'd be 80 then.
05-13-2017 11:32 AM - edited 05-14-2017 05:03 AM
James stated ~
With the co-writing, I’ll write a long outline, anywhere from 60-80 pages, and pretty much every chapter is dealt with, at least 80 percent of the chapters. I then ask the cowriter to contribute to the outline. For two reasons: two heads are better than one, but I also want them to feel that they’re part of the process, that they’ve contributed throughout, even early on with the outline. I then ask that I see pages every few weeks.
He writes over 900 outlines a year/three or four drafts for each book.
05-14-2017 04:21 AM
Well, I may be in the minority here, but I will not read anything that has Bill Clinton's name on it.
05-14-2017 05:06 AM - edited 05-14-2017 05:08 AM
James is helping to keep the publishing industry flourishing ~
more readers and listeners = more jobs for librarians, etc.
05-14-2017 07:38 AM
@mollybgood wrote:James stated ~
With the co-writing, I’ll write a long outline, anywhere from 60-80 pages, and pretty much every chapter is dealt with, at least 80 percent of the chapters. I then ask the cowriter to contribute to the outline. For two reasons: two heads are better than one, but I also want them to feel that they’re part of the process, that they’ve contributed throughout, even early on with the outline. I then ask that I see pages every few weeks.
He writes over 900 outlines a year/three or four drafts for each book.
The math seems a bit iffy here. He writes 60-80 pages for every outline and he writes 900+ outlines a year. At the 60 page minimum that's 54,000 pages a year or 147+ pages each and every day all year long. That math seems a bit off to me. On a really good day with a well thought out story that's ready to go I might write twenty pages or so. My "Becoming Santa" short story is 70 pages and was largely written over a three day period, so I did do a tick more than twenty pages a day then, but those were long days. Writing 147 pages a day every day of the year seems a tick out there to me.
05-14-2017 07:50 AM - edited 05-14-2017 08:02 AM
@gardenman wrote:
@mollybgood wrote:James stated ~
With the co-writing, I’ll write a long outline, anywhere from 60-80 pages, and pretty much every chapter is dealt with, at least 80 percent of the chapters. I then ask the cowriter to contribute to the outline. For two reasons: two heads are better than one, but I also want them to feel that they’re part of the process, that they’ve contributed throughout, even early on with the outline. I then ask that I see pages every few weeks.
He writes over 900 outlines a year/three or four drafts for each book.
The math seems a bit iffy here. He writes 60-80 pages for every outline and he writes 900+ outlines a year. At the 60 page minimum that's 54,000 pages a year or 147+ pages each and every day all year long. That math seems a bit off to me. On a really good day with a well thought out story that's ready to go I might write twenty pages or so. My "Becoming Santa" short story is 70 pages and was largely written over a three day period, so I did do a tick more than twenty pages a day then, but those were long days. Writing 147 pages a day every day of the year seems a tick out there to me.
I assume he is including the edited copies in the 900. However, his mind
appears to manufacture workable tales almost 24/7. I imagine all authors
envy this ability.
05-14-2017 02:44 PM
@mollybgood wrote:James is helping to keep the publishing industry flourishing ~
more readers and listeners = more jobs for librarians, etc.
That's equivalent to saying that all the junk food purveyors are keeping the healthcare professionals in jobs!
05-14-2017 02:53 PM
@LoriLori wrote:James Patterson is the Andy Warhol/Thomas Kinkead of publishing. He does not write his own things, he only puts his name to them just as Warhol and Kinkead paid others to produce "their" art.
Former President Bill Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar and he can write, so I wonder if they're friends, otherwise why would he be messing around with such an inferior mind.
The obvious answer to that is MONEY! Some people will stoop to anything for MONEY and can never get enough of it. Some people also can't stand being out of the public eye and attention. Some people have little or no shame either.
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