出版与作家生涯2022newyorker.com编辑精选
詹姆斯·帕特森如何成为全球最畅销作家
How James Patterson became the world’s best-selling author
导读
这篇讨论围绕 James Patterson 如何成为全球最畅销作家展开，揭示了他用详细大纲加幽灵写手团队规模化产出、以公式化类型小说满足休闲读者、并通过统一封面和自费广告把作者本人打造成品牌的商业写作模式。对写作者而言，它提供了一个观察类型小说生产链条和作者品牌建设的鲜活案例。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
先写出详细的角色设定和故事大纲，再交给写手团队扩写，是把个人写作变成规模化生产的关键。
- 02
类型小说的读者要的是轻松场景里的熟悉角色和连贯情节，而不是文学深度，写作时应服务于这种阅读期待。
- 03
统一的封面风格和作者本人的营销投入能把名字变成品牌，作品之外的包装同样影响销量。
- 04
公式化和可预测的转折不会赶走忠实读者，角色连续性才是系列作品留住人的核心。
HN 评论精选
Patterson 的核心模式是详细大纲加幽灵写手团队，实现规模化产出。
给不熟悉的人：他的书相当普通，但能给休闲读者带来一些乐趣。他出版了200多本书，销量超过4亿册。在给出详细的角色和故事大纲后，他使用一个幽灵写手团队来实际开发书籍和系列。他的成功主要在于他能够扩大规模，以他的名字出版这么多书。
hmate9查看英文原文
For those unfamiliar: His books are quite generic but provide some fun for the casual reader. He has released over 200 books and sold over 400 million copies. He uses a team of ghostwriters to actually develop the books/series after he gives the detailed outlines of the characters and the stories. His success is mainly how he has been able to scale up and release so many books with his name attached.
类型小说的价值在于可读性和角色连续性，而非文学深度。
这些书很公式化，相当直白，情节转折有时很容易预测。我听过或读过25本以上的 Alex Cross 系列（他最受欢迎系列的主角），我其实喜欢这些角色及其个性，以及他们在整个系列中的连续性。文笔不算最好。我读很多书，把它想象成看《法律与秩序》或其他警察电视节目，主要在飞机上读这类书，或者开车时听。这些书并不是要产生19世纪经典或《1984》《美丽新世界》《炼金术士》那样的持久影响。它们不会带你进入新世界或探索科幻概念，没有外星人或奇怪的技术，只是现实世界的镜子，有现实世界的约束，有可爱的角色和有趣（虽然有时过时）的情节。
nickstinemates查看英文原文
The books are formulaic, they're pretty straightforward, the plot twists are sometimes easy to predict. I've listened to / read over 25 of the Alex Cross books (the main character of his most popular book series,) I actually like the characters and their personality and their continuity throughout the series. It's not the best prose. I read a lot. I think of it like watching Law & Order or some other cop TV show. I mostly read these types of books on airplanes or listen to them when driving. The books aren't really meant to have the lingering impact of a 19th century classic or a 1984/brave new world or something like the alchemist. They don't take you to a new world or explore sci fi concepts. No aliens or weird tech or anything like this. Just a mirror of the real world with real world constraints with likeable characters and interesting, if sometimes dated, plots.
Patterson 自费投电视广告、统一封面打造品牌，却把自己包装成幸运的蓝领孩子，回避了野心。
2010年《时代杂志》的一篇简介把 Patterson 描绘成一位才华横溢的营销者，深度参与书籍出版和推广的每个环节：他坚信《Along Came a Spider》该上电视广告，甚至自费拍了广告片；他还推动出版商用统一的封面风格发行 Alex Cross 系列，让自己不只是一位作者，更是一个品牌。但这种营销头脑在传记《James Patterson》中被隐去了。书中他把自己包装成“蓝领孩子”（父亲是保险推销员，这个细节也没提），说成功靠的是祖母灌输的一句话“饥饿的狗跑得更快”。然而驱动他的那种强烈野心，他却一再回避——读起来像是童年情感忽视留下的永远填不满的空洞。
gwern查看英文原文
> A 2010 profile of Patterson in the Times Magazine portrays him as a brilliant marketer closely involved in every level of the publication and promotion of his books. According to the profile, Patterson felt so strongly that “Along Came a Spider” should be advertised on television that he produced a commercial at his own expense. He urged his publisher to release the subsequent titles in the Alex Cross series with a signature style of cover art, making himself not just an author but a brand. This marketing savvy is another side of Patterson that’s absent from “James Patterson.” Instead, the author presents himself as a “blue-collar kid” (his father was an insurance salesman, a detail also not mentioned in the book) who lucked into the best job in the world. In the book’s first chapter, he ascribes his success to a saying drummed into him by his grandmother: “Hungry dogs run faster.” Yet the ravenous ambition that so obviously drives him is a subject he skirts again and again. Seems like a case of childhood emotional neglect: a void that can never be filled no matter how much achievement.
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