art vs. business

[acchikocchi]

James Patterson Inc. -- read this. Fascinating and terrifying. XD; The numbers alone boggle the mind. And his name was only vaguely familiar to me at best before reading this - if you'd told me he was a best-selling author I would have said I kind of remembered seeing his name on dust jackets, but. Anyway, it doesn't rile me up like, say, Dan Brown does - I can totally appreciate what this guy's doing from a marketing perspective, obviously he's very good at it.

Though did Patterson's various comments on his own reading material remind anyone else of an app for thebookyoucrew? XD

Compare to this article, on Thomas Kinkade, "the only artist to be a small-cap equity issue." (Originally published in The New Yorker, but you can't read it from their online archives without a subscription; this link is to the author's personal website.) He and Patterson would either get along like a house afire or detest each other at first sight, I don't know which.

--

Unrelated: My mother and I watched the third installment of the new(est) BBC adaptation of "Emma" on PBS last night, having missed the start last week in which they inexplicably aired the first two episodes back to back. Anyway, I've heard both good and bad assessments from the flist but what no one has pointed out that really threw me: how much Romola Garai looks like Katee Sackhoff! It's eerie! And of all the jarring associations. XD;;;; (Looking at stills, they don't seem to resemble each other much, but trust me, in action they really, really do.)

Comments

[gingifere.livejournal.com]

I've read a few of James Patterson's books, and I'm rather fond of his Alex Cross novels, but I had no idea he'd outsold Steven King and John Grisham! I'm planning to read the article in more detail when it is not 12.30, but thanks for the link~

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

Do read the other one, too, they're both very interesting. As you'll see from the article, Patterson seems to owe the extremes of his success (vs. simply being a moderately successful thriller writer) to his own marketing background - he knew exactly how to market his books to get an edge in the industry against the Kings and Grishams. And he's very ambitious and competitive, natch.

[razberrycreme.livejournal.com]

INSANITY. 1 OUT OF 17 BOOKS BOUGHT WAS WRITTEN BY JAMES PATTERSON?!?! :|

I have never seen the BBC adaptation of Emma! Do you like it so far? I love the book :O Unless it's not that Emma...>>

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

I do! :D It's not perfect - there's some attempts to update the body language that come across as kind of bizarre - but on the whole I like it a lot. I believe it first aired back in October, and this is the first US broadcast. You can catch the last episode next Sunday night if you're interested, it's on public television. :)

Emma was the first Austen I ever read and I love it to bits. ♥

[tinyangl.livejournal.com]

WHOA. That article was eye-opening. I've read several of his books. and totally want to read more. But shit, I had been wondering how many books he releases in a year, because every time i step into the library or into a barnes and noble, he ALWAYS has some new book out. Freaking insane. Those are really amazing number.

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

Right? I thought the glimpse into the publishing industry, especially how it contrasts to yr average marketing scheme, was really interesting.

[mananeh.livejournal.com]

I. I don't understand. The Kinkade 'paintings'. They're prints on canvas, and have paint added on top by random people and that makes them worth more money? How is this different to paint-by-numbers? PAINTER OF LIGHT™

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

I'm having a lot of fun seeing what exactly enrages people the most. XD So far it's two for Kinkade, one - but a strong one! - for Patterson, and two abstaining. XD

I liked the bit about how the highlighters are quizzed on trivia of Kinkade's life! Plus the fifteen-minute timer for highlighting ahahaha sorry it just cracks me up. "LET ME SET THE ART EGGTIMER, BRB."

[ettezag.livejournal.com]

Urggghh I hate Thomas Kinkade. I mean, it's great if his paintings appeal to you but the perception that they're actually valuable and have more worth depending on who splotched some paint on it or had Thomas Kinkade lick it disgusts me.

Haha I think he and Patterson would hate each other, I think guys like them don't want competition to be cramping their style.

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you're not surprised to hear I initially came across this link in the wake of Jared Padalecki's casting as Kinkade himself for a movie back in 2007. XD

[ettezag.livejournal.com]

Heh, I found out a self-produced feel-good movie had been made about him and I just about exploded in disgust. But I think you would not be surprised to hear that my knowledge of that movie comes from looking to see what else Padalecki was in, though I came to the party late.

60 Minutes did a thing on Kinkade, basically covered everything your link mentions but they also interviewed this couple whose house was just plastered with his paintings, they were crammed in every inch of wall space in every single room. Ugh, nightmare house.

[pithetaphish]

James Patterson Inc makes me sick to my stomach. The books might as well be written by rote by trained monkeys - he has as much right to call himself an author as Damien Hirst has to call himself an artist when all the actual work is done by other people. Co-authors my foot. He's turned writing into a factory production line. But what more can one expect of an adman?

This guy may outsell Stephen King or whoever the thriller genre (a cesspool of no-talent hacks to begin with) has decided to posterise this year, but in fifty years no one will remember who the fuck he is and his 'books' will be regarded with the dismissive flicks of disgust they deserve.

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

Now, now, one of my very favorite authors (Dorothy Sayers) worked at an advertising agency before she was able to make a living by writing. But I take your point.

Did you manage to get through the whole article? (Understandable if you didn't - maybe I should have included a warning to those with a vested emotional investment in art-for-art's-sake!) King in particular really seems to get Patterson's goat, because he's achieved some degree of critical acclaim, which is what continues to elude Patterson. And which is part of why I'm able to remain detachedly interested/amused - it's so obviously a commercial enterprise and is appropriately regarded as such. It's entertaining to see the contrast between his realism - that is, he seems to be pretty aware he's churning out cheap entertainment and not writing the Great American Novel - and the ambitious/competitive personality type that has to be number one in everything. The Alpha Male. XD; Plus the sample of his writing was just plain lolarious.

I mentioned Dan Brown in the post because he, on the other hand, used to drive me wild - I think because he did portray himself as an Artiste despite being a total hack. Him and his tweed blazers and squash games and art history trivia and, and persona of a Writer with a capital W. Uh as you can see it hasn't entirely gone away but it's faded with as the DaVinci Code hubbub has. Plus now that particular book's generally regarded as what it is - a cheap thriller.

Anyway, what got my hackles up in this article was Patterson's publisher's - his publisher! - comment about how Patterson was "sensitive to the fact that books carry a kind of elitist persona". Books. Carry an elitist persona. Yes, literacy is so elitist, how dare you have the competence to function at a high level in a society revolving around the written word. Okay that's a bit of an exaggeration but that does engage my emotions ahahaha.

Also I don't like how he equates "people who might not have done so well in school" with "people who don't like books/don't like to read".

[pithetaphish]

I didn't mean to cast any aspersions, but at the same time I think there is a difference between a man who works in advertising and an adman - someone for whom it's just a job and someone who IS the job. I have the same feelings about Peter Carey - you can tell he was in marketing for 20 years before he started writing, the oily arrogance of him just seeps off the pages.

I did get through the whole article, though I think there was steam coming from my ears by the end. I wanted to slap him and his publisher and the whole conglomerate pigsty for infecting literature with their heinous profit-driven consumerism. And the slopper has the gall to complain that no one's taking him or his buckets of swill seriously. ARGH I'm just going to stop talking about it because it drives me blind with absolute OUTRAGE.

[pithetaphish]

Also, thebookyoucrew?

Man. I thought I was a lit snob, but these people have managed to turn it into an ivory tower complete with holes for convenient pouring of boiling oil on any would-be ascendants 0_o

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

A few years back it got LJ spotlight'ed - I think - and suddenly I was hearing about it all over my flist. Thanks to the sudden surge of attention they were even more, ahem, rigorous than usual in their screening processes. After reading the comments on a few potential members' lists, I never forgot that comm. XDDD

[spurious.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh I read that article while I was bored at work the other day, I think my face looked like this D: the whole time.

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

DESHOU. Did you read the other one, about the artist, it's just as bad. Or good, if you're into business or amusement. XD

[matchynishi.livejournal.com]

I've read some of Patterson's books, but they were the sort of thing you read as a time-pass-y sort of thing, and not really anything deep, the kind of plot and storyline you forget a couple of days after you finish... and I never knew he was so prolific!! And is making writing into some sort of factory enterprise!! THE PAINTER THING MAKES ME EVEN MORE MAD WTF WHY DO PEOPLE BUY HIS "HIGHLIGHTED" PAINTINGS ALSKJDFKSJLKJ WTF IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE