Random Thoughts, Notes, & Incidents

This is from the GET PUBLISHED! newsletter by Penny C. Sansevieri, Editor, (penny@booksbypen.com):

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Name Brand Novelist

Ever wonder how those blockbuster authors like Tom Clancy can churn out so many bestsellers? Simple – They hire other writers to flesh out their storylines. According to the Washington Post, Tom Clancy "oversees a vast farm of fiction writers who crank out stories that he imagines." And although Robert Ludlum died last spring, his name will be on several upcoming books written by others.

So why are there so many collaborations these days? Publishers believe that reader appetite for certain list-topping writers is insatiable. Frequently though, the reader doesn't even know the story has been co-authored or written entirely by someone else. Frankly, this trend doesn't surprise me at all. In fact, it's safe to say that we've become a nation bound by the familiar. Which is one of the reasons chains do so well here and mom and pop stores are being inched out. If you get a chance, take a minute to read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (written entirely by the author as I understand it). It's a fascinating account of how fast food has altered everything about this country down to the way we live, work, play, and now it seems…read.

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