What’s it like to be James Patterson? The man has had a plethora of best-selling novels (including 2 currently on the Wall Street Journal’s best-seller list), is tres rich, and has his favorite character all lined up- seriously, who doesn’t like Alex Cross who was once played by Morgan Freeman?

James Patterson’s web site even has a limited  biography of Alex Cross and just in case you have forgotten- he’s 6’3”, drives a Mercedes, and is athletic.  He is also presumably such a great detective that he has had no less than 15 books written about him. I’m taking a wild shot in the dark here and am guessing that a majority of the books have been best-sellers. Due to his success, the “detective” has a forum on the page dedicated specifically to Alex Cross- one discussion asked who should play Alex Cross in the next movie and had no less than 258 pages of responses.

Alex Cross is not James Patterson’s only character. In fact, what prompted me to think about writing about James Patterson was his new book “Witches and Wizards”, which is currently on the best-seller list. Clearly, James Patterson is a man who is not unafraid to follow the current trends in books. Ever since JK Rowlings introduced the entire world to Hogwarts, mythical creatures, witches, and wizards seem to be making a come-back in the pop culture of the US. In fact, I’m just waiting for James Patterson to publish a book about Vampires, perhaps with the esteemed Detective Alex Cross facing off some of the night creatures.

James Patterson is well-known for writing “outlines” of his novels, and then having someone else (often a co-author) write the actual novel, and then re-writing and editing the other author’s draft. According to this interview, Patterson claims to have literally thousands of book ideas and claims that this is the only way he could get his novels finished or all of his ideas done.

Thankfully, he is aware that he is he is not a Tolstoy and is not aspiring to write the next “War and Peace”, but his methods are somewhat disturbing given the enormity of his riches from writing- he has amassed over a billion dollars due to his book sales. The answer for his success could lie in the fact that he started off in advertising and has to know what sells.