--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Debbi Mack <demack5@...> wrote:
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> James Patterson is more than an author. He's a brand. People look at the name, they think "good book" because they've been subject to brainwashing, er, marketing. That's the simple and awful truth of the matter. Period.
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James Patterson is more of a manufacturer right now dispensing product than an author, but if you read the NY Times he created the luck that put him in this situation. His background is advertising, and he's good at it, and when he sold 'Along Came a Spider' he took a big gamble and came up with a very clever TV ad (which he got Little Brown to end up sharing the cost for). The ad also showed amazing hubris, comparing his book favorably to a legitimate literary thriller + great book, Silence of the Lambs. But it worked--he gambled, got himself on the best sellers list, and kept pushing it from there until he created his empire. This was all accomplished sweat and guts, with little help for the most part from his publisher.
I remember reading also how James Ellroy when he sold his film option for I think Black Dahlia he rolled the money (and got his publish to match) into NY Times ads, and that was what propelled him to the bestsellers list. Maybe he would've made it there eventually anyway, but his guts and willingness to invest/gamble on himself is what pushed him over the top.
Same thing is true with The Lace Reader. It was self-published, but the author invested heavily in PR, including taking out a mortgage on her home, and end result, she got a 7-figure deal for the book later.
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