James Patterson is an award winning American author best known for his Alex Cross, Michael Bennett and Women’s Murder Club book series.
Patterson is a prolific author. Together with his co-authors, he has written about 308 books (including 55 kids’ books). Some of his notable co-authors include the former U.S. President Bill Clinton (The President Is Missing) and Country Music legend Dolly Parton (Run, Rose, Run).
His books have sold over 300 million copies making him one of the world’s richest authors. Forbes estimates his net worth to be at $800m. He was the highest earning author in 2020, making earing $80 million between 1 June 2019 and 1 June 2020.
According to Guinness World Records, he is the first author to sell more than 1 million eBooks.
At least 12 of his books have been made into movies including Kiss The Girls (starring Morgan Freeman) Along Came a Spider (starring Morgan Freeman) and Alex Cross (starring Tyler Perry). Women’s Murder Club and Zoo have been turned into television series.
Patterson was born on March 22, 1947 in New York and started writing in 1976 while still working in the advertising industry. He retired from his job as an advertising executive in 1996 to concentrate on writing.
James Patterson shows that it is possible to become incredibly wealthy from writing even while working a 9-5 job.
If you want to learn how to write from James Patterson, check out his writing course on MasterClass. Learn more about MasterClass courses here.
Further Reading
Check out the articles below for quotes by James Patterson and other accomplished writers.
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