James Patterson: ‘A 400-page book is too much for a lot of people’

James Patterson's 40-year writing career is so immense it's as much fun for number crunchers as word lovers. His books account for one of every 17 hardcover novels sold in the US. On average, since his first book, 21 of his books are sold every minute. He has been the most-borrowed author in UK libraries for nine years running. And using the most recent Forbes estimate, he earns €9,000 every hour of every day from sales and tie-ins, such as his children's books or the film adaptation of his Alex Cross thriller, Along Came a Spider.

In a nondescript meeting room in London, dressed in a thick jumper, it seems incongruous that this kindly relative type is the owner of such accolades.

“Oh, I don’t care about any of that stuff,” Patterson (69) says modestly. “I don’t think that means anything. I just tell stories.”

His enterprising nature has led to his newest venture: the reinvention of the novella in a series called BookShots. The precariously placed publishing industry seems to be stabilising – latest figures for the UK, at least, show that sales of physical books, which are more lucrative, have increased for the first time in four years, whereas ebook sales have decreased – but his grab-and-go series is designed as a long-term strategy to respond to changing habits.

“We don’t have the time we used to, so for a lot of people, the idea of a 400-page book is too much,” he says. “Our brains are evolving, the amount of time you want to spend on things is changing. I have an 18-year-old son, and he wants the 600-page biography in 200 pages. He just wants to know what’s the core of the book. So here are books that you can finish coming and going to work. I think that’s very satisfying.”

The first set is reflective of what's to come: most of the books are cowritten with a team of authors, as is the Patterson way; Alex Cross meets arch enemy Gary Soneji again in Cross Kill; and the romance genre is represented in Learning to Ride (a reference to the cowboy love interest, rest assured).

Reflecting the novels themselves, the website puts forward its proposition concisely: “What if someone wrote novels without any of the boring parts,” it goes. “Introducing James Patterson’s BookShots. Under 150 pages. Under $5. Impossible to put down. Read on any device.” (The backs of the books, meanwhile, offer the catchphrase “All killer, no filler”).

Some would argue, no doubt, that it’s the role of novels to leave in “the boring parts”; that – more than film or TV – they should depict a vivid world that captivates the imagination of the reader. But Patterson suggests that literature shouldn’t be above responding to society’s changes in lifestyle.

“It can’t lecture people on how to live their lives,” he says, calm and assured. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with living a fast-paced life; I think there’s something wrong with living a stupid life. Someone that sits on a mattress, that’s great, and someone who’s very busy in a positive way, that’s a good thing. I never have loved the idea that other people have figured out the way other people should live, and the job of literature is to convince other people to live like they want.

“I think BookShots a nice piece of the puzzle. If longer books went away, that would be a disaster. My favourite writers are Gabriel Garcia Marquez and James Joyce, who remain difficult, and you really have to invest in them. But I enjoy mysteries and chicklit and children’s books too.”

A real innovation

The main charge against publishing, Patterson suggests, is that "it doesn't innovate. That's the big thing about BookShots. The paperback was an innovation, and this is a real innovation, especially if it catches on. Malcolm Gladwell, who did Outliers and The Tipping Point, has a book of his essays [ What the Dog Saw] which are 20-25 pages each, but his 300-page books explain the same sort of thing, just with more examples. What's wrong with giving people the 25-page version, the one with less examples?"

Shorter novels have recently gathered momentum – Kindle Singles realised the novella’s natural pairing with the ebook format in 2011, and authors such as Stephen King, Margaret Atwood and Chuck Palahniuk have thrown their weight behind it – the traditional industry has preferred to stay focused on traditional-sized books.

“I think a lot of people who are innovative by nature don’t go into publishing, because they don’t see it as being exciting,” he says, citing the root cause.

So if the business is slow to react, what about the hardback: should there be a place for this format in 2016? After all, it’s the vinyl of the publishing world: big, beautiful and impractical.

“You have to see what happens,” Patterson shrugs. “I mean, they are holding their own for the moment, for whatever reason. I love them. I like to hold and like to read them. I like to make notes on them.

“Without getting depressed about it, you have to ask how publishers are preparing for the future.”

BookShots can go some way to making books accessible, but it can’t solve other literary lamentations, such as the decrease in funding for authors and libraries, and the disappearance of independent bookshops.

Patterson, who lives in Florida with his wife and son,donates a sizeable amount of his personal wealth to both these issues instead, to highlight the problem as much as solve them.

He is one-quarter Irish (his paternal grandfather) and he seems neither thrilled nor surprised to learn about the new governmental smorgasbord of the Department of Regional Development, Rural Affairs, Arts and the Gaeltacht.

“It’s losing importance and funding everywhere,” he says. “In the same way that they say ‘It’s the economy, stupid’, the future of the economy is education, stupid. If we don’t educate people, our citizens aren’t going to be equipped to be citizens.

“It really affects you. There are studies to suggest that people are much more compassionate if they are fiction readers. It makes sense because when you experience new people in different cultures, if you read about different types of characters, you know that they’re ultimately human beings.”

Publishers didn’t want them

The series will continue, Patterson says, with the added bonus of expanding his pool of writers, and rebranding the commercial novella for the benefit of all writers.

“Until now the novella wasn’t developed because there wasn’t anything for writers to do with them,” he says. “For the most part magazines wouldn’t take them, unless you were Norman Mailer, and publishers didn’t want them. I had the idea; I felt there was a need, I thought they would be cool to do. Plus it allows me to tell stories like a madman.”

• Cross Kill and other James Patterson BookShots are published by Penguin Random House