James Patterson biography

James Brendan Patterson, better known as James Patterson (March 22, 1947). Writer and publicist. He was born in Newburgh, New York. U.S. Son of Charles Patterson, an insurance agent, and Isabelle Morris, professor. Upon leaving the high school he began studies in English Language and Literature at Manhattan College in New York and expanded his education at Vanderbilt University in Nashville with a Master of Arts. During his years in the university, he worked in a psychiatric center to pay for his studies. In his spare time, he was dedicated to reading novels and poetry. He was a very educated young man with a great intellectual capacity, he graduated with honors summa cum laude with a BA in English from Manhattan College. He started working as a publicist for Burger King.

From 1970 he entered the world of writing, his first book was released, after countless negatives, in the second half of the 70s. His most important character is Alex Cross, a detective, and psychologist who belonged to the FBI and the Washington police. This character debuted in the thriller “Along came a spider.” At only 29 years old, James Patterson was an accomplished artisan, creative leader in the great advertising agency J. Walter Thompson. Taking advantage of his position in this advertising company, he finally managed to publish his first novel. It related an attractive and captivating police plot. He sold about 10,000 copies. In 1976 he published the book entitled The Thomas Berryman Number, was awarded the Award for Best Opening Romance by Edgar Ward.

Twenty years later and fifteen published works, James Patterson got enough capital to leave his position as CEO at the Walter Thompson advertising agency. He devoted himself completely to the creation of fascinating plots, specifically, police novels. His novels used to be number one in the famous New York Times rankings and sold by the millions. Seeing that his literary power was growing considerably and that occasionally his production demanded more than what he could do, he had many stories that deserved to be written, besides he decided to dedicate time to wife Susan and his son Jack born in 1998, with whom he resided in Palm Beach, Florida. Then he started to organize his factory. He took care of the design of his covers, his advertising campaigns, the marketing process and every detail of the sale.

Over time he understood that he had to diversify and create children’s books, science fiction, and fantasy. With this raid, he managed to sell 325 million copies, more than Stephen King, John Grisham, and Dan Brown together. One out of every 25 novels read in the United States is his own. For example, every weekend he launched between 2 and 6 books. He published a large collection of BookShots. This small collection of books of less than 150 pages, especially, of action. With this collection, James Patterson changed the conception of what was considered at that time as a novel. Making it a story that can be read anywhere without requiring many hours. In addition, each copy was sold at five dollars, a small price that allowed many people in the United States to acquire at least one.

James Patterson was a visionary writer, he understood that reading could compete with television, video games, and social networks, as soon as the advertising and marketing campaigns of great impact were created. For him, books should be promoted as vehicles of culture. He collected numerous awards, including the Edgar Award. James Patterson ranked third in the worldwide list of the celebrities who earn the most money. This great writer was also the founder of the James Patterson Awards in 2005 with which he seeks to promote reading. In 2009, he signed a contract with the publisher Hachette to write nineteen books.

His long years of work and professionalism since it began in 1976, are summarized in more than 130 published books. His books have occupied more than forty times the top 1 in the list of best-sellers of the American newspaper The New York Times. In addition, according to Forbes statistics, is one of the best-paid authors worldwide.

Since the beginning of 2017, the project of a fiction novel co-written by former US President Bill Clinton, which would be called The President is Missing, has started. In addition to being a written work, it will be taken to the small screen as a television series produced by the entertainment company Showtime. This long-term project will be brought to light in 2018. This novel promises a lot, it is about the disappearance of a president of the United States. It combines intrigue, mystery and police style. So, the future work of fiction predicts the premiere of Clinton in the world of writing and is the first collaboration of writer James Patterson to a former president