James Patterson’s first novel, The Thomas Berryman Number, was rejected 26 times before finally being accepted by Little, Brown in 1976. One publisher held it for seven months (which made him hopeful) before turning it down.
The book went on win the Edgar Award for the best first mystery novel.
Patterson now holds the New York Times bestsellers list record with 39 New York Times bestselling titles overall and has sold more than 150 million books worldwide. He’s the only author to occupy the #1 slot on the New York Times Adult Fiction and Children’s Chapter Book bestsellers lists at the same time.
His writing habits
According to an interview on his website, Patterson takes about a year to write a book from start to finish.
I have an evolved series of routines. It’s interesting, when I was watching the filming of the movie ["Kiss the Girls"], one of the things that struck me about Morgan Freeman is the confidence that he has as an actor. He’s just so confident.
Over the years, at least with respect to thrillers, I’ve become very confident. I know that somehow I’m going to get it right, that somehow the ending is going to come to me. I guess a little of that is, yes, I have developed some rituals.
One is to do a very exacting 30-40 page outline. It helps me get organized. I will tend to do nine or ten drafts. I do about a draft a month. On each draft, I work on something in particular. For example, I might work on a couple of characters who I don’t think are rich enough or I might work on plot twists, and then on a couple of drafts I might just work on the writing itself. Early on, I just work on the story.
Want to find out about other famous author rejections? Visit Writers & Rejections: Don’t Give Up!
Want to find out about how other authors write? Visit Author Writing Habits.
Sources:
James Patterson website
We Read biography
How To Deal With Rejection
