James Patterson has an agreement with Hatchette Book Group to write (or something like writing) 17 books by the end of 2012. Seventeen books. I’m sure he has some of them mostly written already, because I have a hard time believing a book written from scratch would be worth reading. But then, Wodehouse wrote one book a year for a while, and many of his were terrific. Is Patterson as good as Wodehouse?
Also, does Patterson work as hard and consistently as Wodehouse?
(Also also, one wonders, will Patterson’s publishers give him the distraction-free time necessary to write so many books well?)
Is JP and good as PGW?
Having never read more than the covers of Patterson’s books, I can answer with authority: No.
I tried one of Patterson’s books, but didn’t get past the first few pages. I should have given it more of a chance, but he just bugged me.
A lot of his stuff recently has been co-written. I’m guessing this means that he contributes mostly his name.