When Hachette Book Group announced a landmark deal with author James Patterson on Tuesday, the numbers were stunning. It calls for him to churn out 17 books through 2012, 11 for adult readers and six for young adult readers. A source familiar with the terms estimates it to be worth at least $150 million to Patterson.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
James Patterson's $150m deal
By Lauren Streib for Forbes:
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It's no secret that Patterson won't write those books himself. And maybe the actual writers involved will be paid a total of maybe $500,000. So really, if these author brands are now so powerful that they can shift that much hackwork, wouldn't the publishers save themselves $149.5m if they just created the author brands in-house? This is what packagers like Hothouse and Working Partners are doing, and very clever of them too.
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