James Patterson by Number

Since 2001, James Patterson has been the bestselling novelist in the world. If the somewhat hyperbolic-sounding bio on his web site is to be believed, “In 2011, it was estimated that one-in-four of all hardcover suspense/thriller novels sold was written by James Patterson, he is the first author to achieve ten million ebook sales, and he holds the Guinness record for the most #1 New York Times bestsellers of any author.”

The Telegraph looks at Patterson’s astonishing success (as well as some of the whys and hows) in a piece that includes the statistics below.

James Patterson in Numbers:
First novel: The Thomas Berryman Number (1976)
Number of novels, including forthcoming ones, to date: 130
Number of James Patterson pages published: 45,651
Years working entirely as an author: 18
Number of James Patterson series: 10
Number of co-authors: 23
Total book sales: Approximately 300 million
Number of New York Times hardback bestsellers: 76
Number of consecutive New York Times bestsellers: 19
Cost of second home: $17.4 million
Number of full-time publisher employees dealing solely with Patterson's work: 3 (plus assistants)
Maximum length of outlines for co-authors: 50 pages
Years spent publishing novels: 38