4 ms·

The title is misleading. Patterson is not the living author to have sold the most books. JK Rowling has sold more, and perhaps others (Akira Toriyama, Danielle

The title is misleading. Patterson is not the living author to have sold the most books. JK Rowling has sold more, and perhaps others (Akira Toriyama, Danielle Steel). [1] I think the claim is that he is currently selling the most per year. Oddly, I had never heard of Patterson. How is that possible given his apparent cultural dominance? [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_fiction_authors https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_fiction...

boomboomsubban 4y ago
>I think the claim is that he is currently selling the most per year They're making an oddly specific claim >Publishers Weekly has determined that he is the best-selling author of the past seventeen years.
- kbelder 4y ago
  Which obviously means someone else is the best selling author of the past eighteen years.
cli 4y ago
His books are everywhere in airport bookstores in Canada and the US. I think I have also seen them in large bookstores, such as Indigo.
edflsafoiewq 4y ago
Every book store and library I've ever been in has a whole "James Patterson" shelf. Easy to find, since his name is the biggest thing on the spine. You can somehow just tell they're garbage without even taking one off the shelf.
- Emma_Goldman 4y ago
  > You can somehow just tell they're garbage without even taking one off the shelf. For better or worse, I honestly think I just blank out these kinds of books. Still, I would have thought that the existence of a living author selling in the hundreds of millions would trickle down to me through one cultural tributary or another. Maybe through articles like this, through a blockbuster film adaptation, through word of mouth, etc.
  - goosedragons 4y ago
    I'm kinda surprised you haven't because his books always end up as mass market paperbacks and are sold at every drug store, Walmart, airport kiosk,etc.
  - groby_b 4y ago
    Kiss the Girls? Along came a spider? Both were pretty successful movies? (There was also Alex Cross, which was a flop) But Patterson is formulaic. If it's not your formula, you won't notice. Other cultural tributaries are the book aisles in your local Walgreens/CVS, which are overflowing with Patterson. But, again, if you're not in that audience, you won't see it. And if your attitude is "I blank out on these kinds of books", your friends will know, and they won't bother to inform you. (Or they have told you once or twice, and you blanked, and they stopped). There is so much media content out there that unless you happen to be interested in a particular niche, you can miss pretty large events.
DarrenDev 4y ago
>Oddly, I had never heard of Patterson. How is that possible given his apparent cultural dominance? If he writes in a genre you don't read, then it's not that surprising. Most men have never heard of Nora Roberts, who comes close to matching Patterson in sales.
duped 4y ago
It's hard to walk through a library, book store, or airport without seeing a James Patterson novel on display (his name is the largest text usually)
davio 4y ago
Interesting that he is open about using ghost writers while Danielle Steel still claims to work around the clock authoring her nonstop stream of novels.

boomboomsubban 4y ago

>I think the claim is that he is currently selling the most per year They're making an oddly specific claim >Publishers Weekly has determined that he is the best-selling author of the past seventeen years.

kbelder 4y ago
Which obviously means someone else is the best selling author of the past eighteen years.

cli 4y ago

His books are everywhere in airport bookstores in Canada and the US. I think I have also seen them in large bookstores, such as Indigo.

edflsafoiewq 4y ago

Every book store and library I've ever been in has a whole "James Patterson" shelf. Easy to find, since his name is the biggest thing on the spine. You can somehow just tell they're garbage without even taking one off the shelf.

Emma_Goldman 4y ago
> You can somehow just tell they're garbage without even taking one off the shelf. For better or worse, I honestly think I just blank out these kinds of books. Still, I would have thought that the existence of a living author selling in the hundreds of millions would trickle down to me through one cultural tributary or another. Maybe through articles like this, through a blockbuster film adaptation, through word of mouth, etc.
- goosedragons 4y ago
  I'm kinda surprised you haven't because his books always end up as mass market paperbacks and are sold at every drug store, Walmart, airport kiosk,etc.
- groby_b 4y ago
  Kiss the Girls? Along came a spider? Both were pretty successful movies? (There was also Alex Cross, which was a flop) But Patterson is formulaic. If it's not your formula, you won't notice. Other cultural tributaries are the book aisles in your local Walgreens/CVS, which are overflowing with Patterson. But, again, if you're not in that audience, you won't see it. And if your attitude is "I blank out on these kinds of books", your friends will know, and they won't bother to inform you. (Or they have told you once or twice, and you blanked, and they stopped). There is so much media content out there that unless you happen to be interested in a particular niche, you can miss pretty large events.

DarrenDev 4y ago

>Oddly, I had never heard of Patterson. How is that possible given his apparent cultural dominance? If he writes in a genre you don't read, then it's not that surprising. Most men have never heard of Nora Roberts, who comes close to matching Patterson in sales.

duped 4y ago

It's hard to walk through a library, book store, or airport without seeing a James Patterson novel on display (his name is the largest text usually)

davio 4y ago

Interesting that he is open about using ghost writers while Danielle Steel still claims to work around the clock authoring her nonstop stream of novels.