JAMES PATTERSON: INNOVATOR’S AWARD WINNER.
James Patterson’s passion is to get people to read — and not just his bestsellers
James Patterson, the bestselling writer made famous by his Alex Cross thrillers, has written or co- written 152 books and has sold, worldwide, more that 350 million copies — not just thrillers but also young adult and middle grade. While occasionally trading places with J. K. Rowling and Stephen King, Patterson consistently comes in as one of the top- earning writers in the world, according to Forbes.
It’s his success as a writer that has allowed Patterson to pave wider avenues for books — both in his book publishing ventures and in philanthropy.
And it took him a little while to commit to being a writer. He published his f irst book, “The Thomas Berryman Number,” in 1976 when he was working at the advertising f irm J. Walter Thompson. He couldn’t quite kick the ad habit — he stayed and rose to the top of the agency — but, he jokes, “I’ve been clean for 23 years now.”
Patterson could have stuck to his winning model of writing thrillers for adults, but concern for his son Jack, when he was 8, prompted Patterson to think about kids and books.
“He wasn’t a big reader,” Patterson said during a phone call from his house in Palm Beach, Fla. “So we got him a dozen books — all the books we thought he was going to like, ranging from ‘ Percy Jackson’ to ‘ A Wrinkle in Time’ — and made him read every day for an entire summer.”
It worked — from that summer on his son became an avid reader.
In 2012, Patterson added to his body of work six young- adult novels, and by 2015 he had decided to start his own children’s line of middle- grade and YA books called Jimmy Patterson — the list includes the reprint of “Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life,” written with Chris Tebbetts and which has been adapted to a movie to be released in October.
He started a website called Read Kiddo Read, which helps teachers and librarians and features book reviews, author contributions and book giveaways.
Yet he hasn’t forgotten about his adult readers.
In March, Patterson announced a publishing venture called Book Shots — short books of no more than 150 pages.
“Look around you, the world is going fast,” Patterson explained. “People don’t want to read books that are long. These books are inspired by the novella.”
Book Shots will be available in print and as e- books, priced at $ 4.99 for print and $ 3.99 as an e- book. The first Book Shots title will be released June 7; one is timed to the presidential elections: “Trump v. Clinton.”
Elmore Leonard was once asked at what point did he start becoming successful, Patterson recalls. Leonard responded, “When I left out the parts that people skimmed.” These books follow that philosophy.
Patterson will write about half the Book Shots, and other authors will write the rest. His strategy is to “get people reading who do not read as much.”
It’s the drive to get people — adults and kids — to read that inspired Patterson’s many efforts to bolster the literary world.
In 2014, he gave $ 1 million to independent bookstores nationwide. “For the individual stores,” Patterson explained, “the money is beneficial in terms of morale and to shine a light on the stores for publicity. It draws attention to the problem that you actually have to stop in the store — not just that your town has one.”
The following year, he distributed $ 250,000 in holiday bonuses to bookstore employees. Each was nominated by peers or customers.
Also in 2015, Patterson set up a fund of $ 1.75 million with Scholastic Books and disbursed the money to public libraries across the country. It too had a nominating process for libraries in need.
“Within the first 10 days of the program we got 28,000 pleas for help from libraries,” Patterson said. He realized that effort wasn’t enough. “We’re doing it again this year. We will help a couple thousand libraries — and in the process help draw attention to them from local governments.”
The next round of funds for school libraries will be announced late this year ( the deadline for applications to nominate a school is May 31; www. scholastic. com/ patterson partnership ).
He has also set up a program that awards scholarships to college students studying to be teachers at more than 20 colleges and universities, including those he and his wife had attended — Manhattan College, Vanderbilt and University of Wisconsin — with strict guidelines: “If you lose a kid in the program, you lose the scholarship,” Patterson said.
For Patterson, the desire to support literacy came from his up bringing in Newburgh, N. Y ., int he 1950s.
“It’s the way my family was,” he said. “It was the way of small- town America. So I decided to focus on an area that I understood — let’s get our kids reading.”