James Patterson is about to make his mark in publishing.
Again.
Nobody would ever accuse the man of being a dilettante. Patterson’s debut book won the Edgar Award in 1977 for Best First Novel. His next, introducing series protagonist Alex Cross, became his first New York Times #1 Bestseller — a step on the road to holding the Guinness World Record for most NYT top spots. As of last count, he has sold over 350 million books worldwide. Not stopping at mysteries and thrillers, he has branched out to publish fiction for young readers. He is the first author to have #1 new titles simultaneously on the New York Times adult and children’s bestsellers lists. And, oh yes, he is also a member of this chapter of the Mystery Writers of America.
Unsatisfied, or just unstoppable, the blockbuster author is ready to launch his latest venture. Next month he and Little, Brown will roll out James Patterson BookShots, a line of lean, fast-paced stories geared for busy readers who lack the time to invest in full-length novels. All under 150 pages, all less than five dollars.
“I think BookShots is, potentially, a revolution,” says Patterson, speaking by phone from his Florida home a few weeks ago. “People are running around. They don’t have the time they used to. They say it again and again and again: ‘Oh, on my vacation, I’m going to read a book.’ And for a lot of people, it really becomes such a commitment to sit down and read a 400-page book. So this gives them another option.” And that option is what his website calls “stories at the speed of life.”
The first two BookShots will release on June 7: Cross Kill, an Alex Cross story; and Zoo 2, a follow-up of the 2012 bestseller, co-written by Patterson and Max DiLallo. Available both online and as physical books at retailers, nine additional titles are in the monthly release queue through September 2016. You just know there will be more. And the author says they won’t be only mysteries and thrillers. ”We also have a romance line. Why? Because, A, there are a lot of faithful romance readers; B, I feel they might like more high-octane stories. A lot of them read mysteries, so there’s a lot of crossover.”
A Novella Approach
The branding, even the name — BookShots – is undeniably canny. But the form is familiar, if elastic, even to Patterson himself. “It’s hard to say what a novella is, honestly. Was Love Story a novel or a novella? Was Steps a novel or novella? I compare them [BookShots] to reading a movie. They’re very fast paced.”
You wouldn’t expect anything but. Fellow titan Michael Connelly once observed that “Patterson boils a scene down to the single, telling detail, the element that defines a character or moves the plot along. It’s what fires off the movie projector in the reader’s mind.”
Patterson says, “I wish it was true all the time. I don’t always succeed with that. But that’s what I’m trying to do and pretty much am succeeding in BookShots because it’s a lot easier to deliver in 30 chapters.”
In a keenly visual moment for a phone interview, the author rolled the brain projector with a verbal tour of his office. “Where I’m sitting right now, there are very deep drawers on my right. Eight deep drawers. In fact, I’m going to pull one out now.” There’s the sound of wheels gliding on tracks. “So, I’m pulling out the first one, and there are 30 tabs here — files with tabs. Every one of these is a BookShot. All eight drawers. So in these drawers now are almost 140 BookShots. I outlined, I would say, 90 of these. I think you can imagine that: 90 outlines.” Papers rustle. “My outlines are always three or four drafts. The outlines for these tend to be, maybe, 30 pages. They’re not very detailed. I try to capture what is the core of that scene. Less is more. When I start writing more, I end up seeing I don’t know what the f#@k I’m talking about; I don’t have it.” He continues, narrating the tour, naming titles, audibly flipping through files, riffling those tabs, those 30-page outlines, just through the first drawer. “It’s an incredible amount of stuff, and, I think for better or worse, what people don’t understand is the amount that I write and the amount that I outline.”
That begs an obvious question: What drives him to do all this? He answers at the speed of life. “I love to do it! I’m not sure when I jumped off the bridge on this one, not sure what motivated me to do it, but I was kind of trapped. ‘Cause I’ve got these series, and here’s Alex Cross, here’s Women’s Murder Club, and here’s Michael Bennett… and I had all these ideas for things – for other series. All this content is unbelievable. I didn’t have anyplace to put them.”
So, exploring this shorter form presented an opportunity for the famous author to bring forth stories that otherwise might not get told. “You know, when you think about the novella, I think one of the reasons it was never developed, is there was no place for it. There was no marketplace. Nobody had presented them as books, for the most part, and magazines didn’t want them because they were too long. So writers weren’t stimulated to do it or experiment with it or try to refine it because they couldn’t sell it. So it all changes now.”
Innovation and Anticipation
Last month at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Patterson was presented the 2015 Innovator’s Award. “One of the things that I mentioned in my speech is that publishing doesn’t innovate.” So now that he has innovated with BookShots, an industry that you could charitably call in flux, is hopeful.
There is great anticipation at the prospect of stimulating readership – and sales. Patterson expects online to explode. Initial indicators at the retail level are also positive. “It’s amazing. The response is unbelievable. I mean, when I went out to one of the big chains, the head buyer said, ‘You just made my Christmas.’ As opposed to a ‘We’ll think about it.’ Another huge chain said, ‘You just gave me my birthday present.’ That’s the kind of response we’re getting. ‘Yes, we want these in the book department; we want them by the cash registers.’”
He gets his fair share of thorns, too. In a March New York Times Book Review, Inside the List columnist Gregory Cowles followed up the feature his paper did on Patterson’s shorter, plot-based BookShots by writing, “…That’s like McDonald’s expanding its market through intravenous injections of salt, sugar and fat.” The author had seen that and took it in stride. “I thought it was pretty funny. But — if the writer had actually read one — he would find that what he’s saying is totally incorrect. Because what these do is take the fat out.”
Think back to that deep file drawer. Tight outlines without excess. Nonfat. A preview peek at a future BookShot backs it up. Lightning speed. Taut action. Movie projector clarity. No flab.
Is This a Thing?
Are we four weeks away from a publishing revolution? Could a new line of branded stories compete with surfing the Web, bingeing House of Cards, or life’s multi-tasking? Will its size and cost get more people to become readers? Can it pump some fuel into the industry and open roads for writers reading this blog?
Even that Inside the List columnist, after making his Mickey-D dig, conceded, “It will probably work like a dream.” On the eve of launch the author is confident. “I think it’s going to work. I think it’s just a question of how big is it going to be?”
Given James Patterson’s history, he may have a shot.
—Tom Straw
Tom Straw is an Emmy and Writers Guild of America nominee for his TV writing and producing. He joined the Mystery Writers of America in 2007 on publication of his first book, The Trigger Episode. Subsequently, under a pseudonym, he has authored seven New York Times Bestsellers. He currently serves as a board member of the MWA-NY chapter.
Photo ©2013 David Burnett