Marketing James Patterson

Marketing James Patterson

James Patterson is a popular crime fiction author with a unique business strategy: he produces approximately 3 times more books annually than comparable authors and employs unconventional advertising tactics. Patterson’s unique writing style and use of co-authors to write more books has proven to be successful, generating annual book sales of $120 million. Using his advertising background, Patterson has turned his name as an author into a well-known brand.

Patterson built his empire by finding a successful method and using it consistently. Each of his books is written in his signature style – short chapters, minimally descriptive text, and suspenseful endings – and Patterson relies on designated readers to critique his works-in-progress to ensure that optimal books are produced. As a result, readers trust that Patterson’s books will meet their expectations.

There are many channels through which books are distributed. For best-seller fiction, the top three channels are mass merchandisers and price clubs, large-chain bookstores, and book clubs, selling 34%, 25%, and 20% of unit sales, respectively. The increasing popularity of book clubs has attracted the interest of Patterson and his publisher. Authors receive lower royalty payments though book club purchases than other channels. However, book clubs also expose new readers to an author in a way that other channels do not.

Patterson realizes that the best way to advertise a book and generate interest from new readers is to create buzz marketing – if information starts in several groups, it will spread farther through word-of-mouth than if the information starts in a single group. Patterson would like to create this type of buzz...

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.... Therefore, Patterson could target his marketing strategy towards science fiction readers and consider an alternate way of reaching romance novel readers. Patterson could also use this information to determine which specific fiction genre is most popular and consider writing a cross-over novel within that particular genre.

With James Patterson’s advertising background, he has focused on and employed more successful marketing strategies than most authors. Taking into consideration his crime fiction-focused fan base and their buying habits, as well as the growth of book sales though book clubs, Patterson’s next step should be to combine his tried-and-true writing style with inventive new marketing strategies, such as reaching new readers through book club partnerships, to create buzz marketing and expand the group of consumers that choose to purchase his books.