Don't you wish you were James Patterson

[B.R.Stateham]

Here's an interesting set of figures on who was at the top of the best-sellers list for 2010, and what sold.

 

To me it looks like only recognizable names on the fiction side get to have best-sellers. Year, after year, after year, after year . . . .

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher...

[I. J. Parker]

I think you only have the top-selling books here.  There are additional bestsellers, and occasionally a mystery author shows up there, having his name made from then on.

 

No, I wouldn't want to be Patterson.  He's not a writer.  He runs a book factory.

 

What we can deduce from all this is that very very few people reach everybody, and that to reach everybody you need to write simply and on topics everyone likes.

[Jessica]

I want Patterson's bank account.

[Benjamin Sobieck]

When's the last time he actually wrote a book? Or seen him or his body doubles alive?

 

James Patterson: The Fidel Castro of publishing.

[Tim Scanlon]

I wish I was one of James Paterson's ghost writers.

 

I wonder what share the ghost writers he employs actually get?