4 ms·

I tried one last year, worst book i have read in 10 years. I have no idea why they are popular. They are all written by ghost writers i think.

by bwb 4y ago

aaronbrethorst 4y ago
FTA: "Patterson supplies detailed outlines for his books. His co-writers then flesh out these narrative skeletons into installments of popular series"
- ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago
  He has scaled up thrillers like a startup. Hence his personal wealth is crazy.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
dmitriid 4y ago
It's an unexplained phenomenon. I know of a Russian author, Dontsova [1] that is the same: hundreds of shitty detective novels, immensely popular. [1] A wikipedia article, as badly written as the books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darya_Dontsova?wprov=sfti1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darya_Dontsova?wprov=sfti1
- richardatlarge 4y ago
  Maybe it’s best understood like a Big Mac. One crappy burger after another, eaten for eternity because they are reliably average. There’s money to be made as a serial provider of homogeneous sustenance
  - cs137 4y ago
    It's the exploit/explore tradeoff. In the cultural industries, most consumers (the majority of whom don't care to be more than that) prefer to exploit--that is, read or watch or listen to something very similar to what they already have--than explore. We think readers should be a smarter crowd--and, thus, more upscale in their choices--than TV watchers and popular music listeners (as both groups comprise, roughly, the general population). This is possibly the case, but it seems to be cancelled out by the massive time investment involved in seriously reading a book: eight hours for a typical novel, as opposed to an hour for a TV show or 3 minutes for a pop song. The high cost of exploration means that the book world has the same problem and, unfortunately, the processes and people who are trusted to filter for quality, quite frankly, don't. Traditional publishers follow the market and "book buzz" is built from the opinions of highly influential non-readers.
- michaelt 4y ago
  The target market probably doesn't see it as shitty or uninnovative, but rather as the next instalment with their beloved series/characters/author. The people who go to Marvel movies aren't looking for fresh new superheros, or an challenging new format where Batman explores the true root causes of crime in society.

I tried one last year, worst book i have read in 10 years. I have no idea why they are popular. They are all written by ghost writers i think.

by bwb 4y ago

I tried one last year, worst book i have read in 10 years. I have no idea why they are popular. They are all written by ghost writers i think.

aaronbrethorst 4y ago

FTA: "Patterson supplies detailed outlines for his books. His co-writers then flesh out these narrative skeletons into installments of popular series"

ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago
He has scaled up thrillers like a startup. Hence his personal wealth is crazy.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

dmitriid 4y ago

It's an unexplained phenomenon. I know of a Russian author, Dontsova [1] that is the same: hundreds of shitty detective novels, immensely popular. [1] A wikipedia article, as badly written as the books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darya_Dontsova?wprov=sfti1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darya_Dontsova?wprov=sfti1

richardatlarge 4y ago
Maybe it’s best understood like a Big Mac. One crappy burger after another, eaten for eternity because they are reliably average. There’s money to be made as a serial provider of homogeneous sustenance
- cs137 4y ago
  It's the exploit/explore tradeoff. In the cultural industries, most consumers (the majority of whom don't care to be more than that) prefer to exploit--that is, read or watch or listen to something very similar to what they already have--than explore. We think readers should be a smarter crowd--and, thus, more upscale in their choices--than TV watchers and popular music listeners (as both groups comprise, roughly, the general population). This is possibly the case, but it seems to be cancelled out by the massive time investment involved in seriously reading a book: eight hours for a typical novel, as opposed to an hour for a TV show or 3 minutes for a pop song. The high cost of exploration means that the book world has the same problem and, unfortunately, the processes and people who are trusted to filter for quality, quite frankly, don't. Traditional publishers follow the market and "book buzz" is built from the opinions of highly influential non-readers.
michaelt 4y ago
The target market probably doesn't see it as shitty or uninnovative, but rather as the next instalment with their beloved series/characters/author. The people who go to Marvel movies aren't looking for fresh new superheros, or an challenging new format where Batman explores the true root causes of crime in society.