Friday, May 8, 2009
Books Fleeing the Clone Farms
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, May 8, 2009 at 4:52 PM
The New York Times has an interview with an author who slaved away on bestselling mystery author James Patterson's ghost-writing farm, and it provides a little peek inside the fiction factory:
Mr. de Jonge’s next two books [for Patterson], “The Beach House” and “Beach Road,” both murder mysteries set in and around East Hampton, N.Y., are more in Mr. Patterson’s trademark cliffhanger style. This “rapid-fire, in-your-face, you-better-keep-reading-or-else” format, as an admirer once called it, is one that critics often wince at but that has never done him any harm at the cash register.For all three books Mr. Patterson supplied lengthy outlines. The instructions he gives his co-authors are very detailed, he explained, and then he extensively reworks their drafts. “The outlines I do are really, really powerful,” he said. “They’re 60 pages sometimes, and they’re pretty good to read just on their own. They’re like little high-adrenaline bullet trains, with every chapter built around a nugget.”
Patterson is so proud of his outlines that it's kind of precious. Ghost writing is such a weird industry—it's probably one of the best, most secure ways to make money as a writer, but it seems to crush a lot of writers' spirits. It's interesting that this author is using it as a publicity point, though, because it certainly doesn't make me want to read his new book.
(Via.)
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1
“Facing the projects and their captive populace of thousands are a nasty little Chinese restaurant, a Western Union that cashes child-support payments and a liquor store named Liquor Store, with more bulletproof glass than the Popemobile.”
...If that's the highlighted piece of this book, I really hate to imagine the rest of the prose.
...If that's the highlighted piece of this book, I really hate to imagine the rest of the prose.
2
Some people are interested in the text itself and others are focused on the identity of the author. And the ownership of a copy of the book the text is printed in. And who the owner of the book containing the text purchased it from. Whether or not the book was purchased in a physical store whose owner does not own any other stores and lives in the same region as that store. All that important stuff, as opposed to the text itself.
3
Elenchos,
You can't use a fancy semiotic term like 'text' when referring to James Patterson. The correct way to describe his work is to call it a 'bunch of shit on a page.'
You can't use a fancy semiotic term like 'text' when referring to James Patterson. The correct way to describe his work is to call it a 'bunch of shit on a page.'
4
Don't even get me started on this quack job of a writer; he doesn't even deserve to be called one. I fucking hate him. He ruins the very idea of books and literature.
5
How bizarre-it never occurred to me that Patterson was so bad and so prolific because he wasn't doing the writing. I thought he was so bad because he was churning out so much crap. At least with the series books for kids and YA readers it's well known that the the "author" is a bunch of people.I've learned that some of my favorite books weren't written by the guy named on the cover ( not Patterson, I've never managed to finish more than a chapter of "his" books). It's horribly sad- those writers should be able to get the money for doing their own work, not churning out another slab of this junk. And the publishers are lying, by pretending that one person has produced this much product.
6
Ack! hadn't read enough of the linked article. It seems that both names are (somewhere) on the book, and this ghost writer has gotten published as himself.
It's just an odd concept-to write fiction that someone else will get to take credit for.
It's just an odd concept-to write fiction that someone else will get to take credit for.
7
At my publisher, we openly refer to our best-selling authors as "brands". We're thrilled when they cowrite with people, if it helps us get at least a book a year out of them.
That being said, I don't understand people who hate on bad books. Who cares? No one is making you read them. Someone likes them, obviously, and someone else is making money off of them. No one with real taste takes them seriously. It's like bashing on McDonalds for having bad food. You know, duh and all that.
That being said, I don't understand people who hate on bad books. Who cares? No one is making you read them. Someone likes them, obviously, and someone else is making money off of them. No one with real taste takes them seriously. It's like bashing on McDonalds for having bad food. You know, duh and all that.
8
if an authors feels they can "direct" the writer in such as way that what the reader wants is still present in the book, i don't see what the problem is. chihuly. warhol. etc...
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