Craigslist ad seeks writer to rip off the style of James Patterson
By Jeff MillsJune 17th, 2011, 1:45 pmComments (7)
An interesting New York Craigslist ad has recently surfaced, looking for a worker-bee writer to churn out prose in the style of bestselling thriller author, James Patterson. The actual word used is "pattersonization." The insanely popular Patterson has moved millions of units, but that's not how you know he made it. You know he made it because he lent his voice and "image" to The Simpsons. Maybe because his Alex Cross books have veered into punning-title territory in recent years, someone felt that this town was big enough for two James Pattersons, and decided to capitalize. Is this just an extension of what people like artist Jeff Koons and author James Frey are doing, farming out the work as a business proposition? Thanks, Andy Warhol.
Here's how the ad (which is borderline Onion-esque) reads:
James Patterson has sold over 200 million novels -- more than Stephen King, John Grisham and Dan Brown combined -- largely because his brief, open, explicit style mimics popular TV.
It's so easy on the reader.
Help us pattersonize our novels -- editing, punching up the prose -- cutting to the core of the emotion.
$5 to $10 per page, quality -- revisions required -- dependent.
More than 2000 pages existing work to be edited at present.
What's next, Dr. Franzenstein's House of Prose?
Commentarium (7 Comments)
The Times had a profile of a guy who did this exact thing for James Patterson himself. It's apparently very lucrative for an aspiring writer.
Ghostwriting is common and sometimes lucrative. Tons of Patterson's books are either ghostwritten or "co-written." Frey-style prose factories are usually bad news for aspiring writers.
you know, i came across this ad last night and was thinking about replying to it, but they asked for a "pattersonized" version of some of your own work or another authors, and I just couldn't bring myself to do that to someone's writing.
Patterson has a whole writers core that writes his books. A friend of mine worked for Patterson for a while after is MA in Literature. He said that Patterson gives a plot, describes characters, and critical details at a briefing, and then a team of 3-5 writers will punch out a book in 2 weeks. It gets edited, refined, edited, and then and only then does Patterson himself actually reads and makes final edits to the book.
James Patterson ceased to be a writer a long time ago. Now, Patterson is a brand and franchise just like any other commodity.
Oh please. Next thing you'll be claiming that Jim Davis hasn't been directly involved with Garfield for years.
Gee wiillrkes, that's such a great post!
Super excited to see more of this kind of stuff onnlie.