James Patterson
© Stephanie Diana

Writing memorıes

James Patterson has sold more than 425 million books worldwide. He also holds the Guinness World Record for having the most No. 1 New York Times bestsellers. The Connection recently caught up with the prolific author to talk about his career—how it began and where it’s going.

A job working nights at a psychiatric hospital may be the reason we have James Patterson’s books to enjoy. After Patterson finished high school he needed to raise money before attending Manhattan College in the Bronx on a four-year scholarship.

Enter the psychiatric hospital, providing funds and an ample amount of free time, which he began to fill with books. “When I was working there, I often had the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, and I would just read, read, read. I got up to a novel a day,” Patterson says.

“Then I just started scribbling these stories, and I loved it,” he continues. “Somebody said you’re lucky if you find something you like to do, and it’s a miracle if somebody will pay you to do it. I found something that I love to do.

For Patterson, who has written, co-written and published 312 books, this may be the understatement of the century.

James and Sue Patterson on their wedding day
Courtesy of James Patterson

From ad man to novelist

After graduating from college, Patterson attended Vanderbilt University, where he earned a master’s degree in English, then headed into advertising at J. Walter Thompson, where he would eventually become the CEO of the North American branch. (You may remember the popular jingle for Toys ‘R’ Us—Patterson wrote the part “I’m a Toys ‘R’ Us Kid.”)

“When not at his advertising job, he began writing fiction. Patterson’s first book, The Thomas Berryman Number, was rejected 31 times before it was picked up by Little, Brown, where, after its publication, the book won the prestigious Edgar Award given by the Mystery Writers of America.

Although buoyed by the success, Patterson remained in advertising. Back then, he wasn’t making any money off his book. “Then I said, ‘I’m going to write a bestseller,’ ” he says. “The second book I wrote—Season of the Machete—was terrible. It was awful. … It’s just dreadful.”

He continued to write books, but Patterson says they continued to come up short. “None of them are very good. I really didn’t know what the hell I was doing.” Until, that is, the early 1990s.

Patterson with his son, Jack
Courtesy of James Patterson

Patterson’s first real love, a woman named Jane, developed a brain tumor and died. After her death, he decided to make something out of his writing career. He believed that he finally understood what he needed to do to write a bestseller.

Patterson developed his signature style, which included short chapters, a fast pace that made readers want to keep reading more and a recurring character they would grow to love—Alex Cross, a forensic psychologist and detective who becomes an FBI agent.

His thriller Along Came a Spider was published in 1993, and the novel debuted at No. 9 on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list. Other Alex Cross books followed: Kiss the Girls in 1995, Jack and Jill in 1996, Cat & Mouse in 1997, and on and on. Many became bestsellers.

The Patterson dynasty had begun.

On the set of the TV series Zoo; Patterson as a baby
Courtesy of James Patterson

Writer collaborations

Over the next three decades, while Patterson continued to pen his successful solo novels featuring Alex Cross, he also began something different: collaborating and co-authoring with other writers. “I just had a gazillion ideas,” he explains, and not enough time to write them all by himself.

The first book was with his friend Peter De Jonge, called Miracle on the 17th Green. Next came his Women’s Murder Club tomes, followed by countless others.

Patterson explains his collaborations like this: “In 95% of the cases, I write a 50- to 70-page outline, and then I will ask the co-writer to contribute. One, because I want their ideas, and secondly, because it gets them emotionally involved in the thing if they bring some ideas to the party. I look at the stuff every two or three weeks. It’s not like publishers where a year later you bring the book, and they say that it wasn’t what they were thinking. I’ll either say, ‘You’re the best’ or ‘Hold it, we’re marching sideways here’ or the tone has been lost. It’s a lot easier to deal with two weeks of work.”

These days, Patterson says, he will usually do one rewrite of the entire book. In the beginning of his collaborations, he would do two or three. “But I have a better group now,” he says. “We’re all used to each other.”

Although some have criticized this arrangement, Patterson doesn’t care. “For starters, in advertising, it’s all collaboration—you work with an art director and a producer. We’re used to collaborating. You’ll have six or 10 writers in a writers’ room for TV shows,” he explains. “It’s not as crazy as people think.”

James Patterson at J. Walter Thompson Advertising Company; in his office
Courtesy of James Patterson

Along came a kid

Patterson began writing for children when he and his wife, Sue, were raising their son, Jack. Similar to his dad at that age, Jack wasn’t a big reader. When Jack was about 8, Patterson and Sue told him that summer he was going to read every day. They were going to choose books they thought he would like. “At the end of the summer, he’d read all 12,” says Patterson.

A lightbulb went off, and Patterson began writing stories for kids—ones that he thought they would enjoy. His subsequent bestselling I Funny series of books, featuring middle school character Jamie Grimm—who wants to be the world’s greatest stand-up comic—has entertained millions of young readers.

The Pattersons at a University of Wisconsin football game
Courtesy of James Patterson

Giving back

Having once made no money from his books, the couple have become philanthropists, giving half of their money to charity.

According to Patterson, they’ve helped fund more than 18,000 classroom libraries across the country—“because my mother was a teacher, and she would pay for her own classroom library,” he says.

They’ve given more than $35 million to their alma maters: Manhattan College, Vanderbilt University and the University of Wisconsin. In addition, they’ve established more than 450 scholarships for those studying to be teachers or writers in 21 colleges and universities. The Pattersons have also donated more than 1 million books to military troops serving both in the U.S. as well as overseas.

Patterson says they’ve recently announced a new program to get books to children who can’t afford to buy them. “We try to make [our giving] about getting kids reading or getting teachers through school without too much debt,” he explains.

With his son, Jack
Courtesy of James Patterson

Looking back

During the height of COVID-19, Patterson was stuck in his home in Palm Beach, Florida, for several months. “I started scribbling stories, and once I had the tone, I really enjoyed it,” he says. Those stories became his memoir, James Patterson, which was released in early 2022. He tells about his grandmother, who was a major force in his life and gave him the adage that became the motto for his writing career: Hungry dogs run faster.

But it also talks about his parents, his childhood, his time in Catholic school, attending Woodstock (“Everybody my age says that, but I was actually there,” he says), working as an usher at Fillmore East and much more. “I’m really excited about it,” says Patterson.

At this memoir stage of his life, looking back, is there anything that he hasn’t done but would like to regarding writing? “I’ve had very successful books, but not like a Harry Potter. That would be fun,” he says. “I want to write the kind of novel that would be read and reread so many times that the binding breaks, and the book literally falls apart—pages scattering in the wind. I’m still working on that one. But it does drive me.”

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Noteworthy nonfiction

In addition to the novels James Patterson writes or co-writes, he also writes nonfiction. Walk in My Combat Boots, co-written with U.S. Army 1st Sgt. (Ret.) Matt Eversmann, relates stories from men and women about what it’s like to have fought on the front lines.

Eversmann also worked with Patterson on E.R. Nurses, true stories from nurses working in emergency departments. “Our mission was if you’re a nurse, you’ll read it and say that we got it right. If you’re not [a nurse], you’ll think, ‘I thought I understood nursing and hospitals. I didn’t, but now I do,’” Patterson says.—MW

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