No other author has had as many New York Times bestsellers at one time as James Patterson. People magazine called him the “king of the bestsellers list.” He has outsold writers like Stephen King, John Grisham and Dan Brown.
Yet Patterson has not gone without criticisms. His stable of co-writers, his non-literary style of writing and his dominance of every genre have all been fair game. In this GalleyCat contributor’s interview with Patterson, he responded to those critics. He also discussed the secret to his success and his advice for aspiring authors.
Here’s an excerpt from the interview: “My success revolves around the fact that I am fairly analytical, logical, have a pretty good IQ but I’ve got street smarts too. You know, a lot of people who have nice IQ’s are just dumb as a brick when it comes to thinking about how other people think and what they might like and how to act in public and things like that. I think I have, you know, gifts involved of those areas. I mean, if I am writing a story that kids are supposed to not want to put down, if I don’t feel it, then I don’t think kids will feel it. If I don’t think that the pages are moving in the story and the characters aren’t involving, then I’m going to assume that the people reading it won’t.”