Play Book Tag discussion

How do you feel about co-authored books? Do you view fiction vs non fiction co-authored books differently?

What do you think about the use of Tom Clancy and James Patterson name. I think Stuart Woods does this too but note sure?

What are some interesting co-authors that write under one name?

What are some authors or series where the author has changed but not the published name?

Three books come to mind... Maybe four. America’s first daughter by Stephanie Dray and somebody else. The Wife Between Us by Greer and Hendricks, The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson, and my recent read My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand and two others. They all felt pretty seamless to me in terms of the writing. But I remember how much in the first two books I listed, the authors really spoke about the experience of writing together and what a bond that forms and what that meant to them to be able to create such an experience. I really like to be able to peter in and see how they blended their ideas and styles. I am now thinking of Jody Piccoult and the two books she go-authored with her daughter. And what a special experience to be able to do that with your parent/child. I think as long as the books are seamless, it’s a pretty incredible experience to have such a unique partnership and blend for the authors. I enjoyed Bill Clinton and James Patterson teaming up. Especially because it was such a novel and unique thing for Bill Clinton to do, and he has so much experience for what it’s truly like to be a president and the kinds of feelings and emotions not to mention daily routines that come up. I really loved the idea of him indulging his thriller side. Weaving the tale.

This Is How You Lose the Time War won the 2019 Nebula for best science fiction novella. The co-authors are an interesting combination. Her GR page says they are working on a script to adapt if for TV.

I read two Cristina Lauren books this month and I commented on their partnership in one or both of my reviews. Their real first names are Christina and Lauren. Writing seems like it could be a lonely profession, and I think two people can come up with more ideas than one person. When I did academic writing, it was nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of when I was stuck. A writer I know has writing vacations with her friends where they sit at the dining room table of her family's beach house. They write independently, share their work, and talk.

I imagine that most writers want total control over their work, so it's not common to have full partnerships. There would need to be a lot of trust, and perhaps some sort of division of skills or labor.

Jgrace - The authors of This Is How You Lose the Time War are a great example. They have two complementary skills. She is a poet who can do magical word play, and he is a sci-fi writer who knows how to structure a strong narrative. Together they can create something that neither could do alone. I can't imagine what it will look like on the screen. They're going to need some visually creative people to show the different worlds and time periods (I think the story covers periods thousands of years apart). And the people are so different. I think the garden people literally grow from the ground for part of their development.

As a reader, I hate the James Patterson factory model. It feels dishonest and cheap. I suppose it's a great business model for the famous author. He can make a lot more money, and push the books out faster. It might be a good way to mentor young writers too, but I don't know how they feel about it, or what they're getting from Patterson. I think the Clinton /Patterson book was more of an honest partnership. I could hear Clinton's voice and ideas in several parts of the book, and he got full billing.

Didn't someone tell us last year about an author who openly delegates books to other authors, to be published under her name? There was some controversy about it last year. I don't recall the details. Amazon seems to like highly productive writers. I've heard that Dugoni's books seem to have different writing styles, so he might be doing the same thing.

I like them if they work! Some writers are best with a partner - Larry Niven's solo work is not as good IMO as when he teams up with Jerry Pournelle, for example. Some not so much - Mercedes Lackey is better off on her own, unless it's with Anne McCaffrey. It seems to me when you pair two really good writers the result will be good. When one is not as good as the other, I imagine it will depend on how much of the resulting work is written by whom.

Re James Patterson, I've never liked his work much, I think most of "his" stuff is mediocre. Whether or not it's his skill or the ghostwriter's, who knows. Tom Clancy's early work was great, then I kind of lost interest when Jack Ryan became president, so I don't know whose writing lost me, I didn't even know he farmed his name out.

I wonder about John Grisham - the (admittedly very) few books I read I found mediocre and I gave up on his work; but I personally think The Pelican Brief was written by two people who were swapping chapters, the writing style seemed to change from chapter to chapter.

Amy wrote: "The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson..."

This is the one exception for me of "James Patterson's" books - I don't like Patterson's work but I really liked this one, and I can't help wondering how much of it is Clinton's!

annapi wrote: "I like them if they work! Some writers are best with a partner - Larry Niven's solo work is not as good IMO as when he teams up with Jerry Pournelle, for example. Some not so much - Mercedes Lackey..."

I just looked up Tom Clancy. All of his writing was his own but after his death, his series are farmed out and have his name like Patterson's. That's what threw me off.

Regarding Bill Clinton and James Patterson, here is an interesting article about a study trying to determine how much each collaborator contributed.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/boo...

That was a very interesting article...

Thanks for the link to the article, Jason, that was interesting!

So, before I get up on my soapbox about the Patterson Industrial Complex, let just talk about duos writing.

I've read many, and all too often if it is a pseudonym, I don't even realize it is a duo writing. I can't think of any true collaborative work I've read that stood out to me as 2 different people writing. I'm not talking about books like The Floating Admiral or even the mass market 6 or 7 book serials popping up in suspense and romance where multiple authors write a section of an overarching story line. Those are quite distinct and are meant to be.

Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer are terrific together and separate -- she brings wit and romance, he brings suspense and thriller. The Nordic Noir Nina Borg series are seamless and excellent, ditto many others that I am now drawing a blank identifying.

Authors like James Michener and Sidney Sheldon had teams working with them on their books, Michener especially given the research involved. I seem to remember that both had stables of writers write part or all of their works under their name. Sheldon's series were continued after his death.

And partnerships have evolved -- often family partnerships - Lee Child's son is co-writing the newer Jack Reachers, Suzanne Brockmann is co-writing a YA paranormal series with her daughter. Or maybe that's lending marketablility to a family member writer.

There are many authors whose series and books have been continued under their name after their death -- Robert Ludlum (in fact, there are rumors that more than one of the later Bourne books were not written by him while he was alive). Nancy Pickard successfully continued the Virginia Rich mystery series revolving around food, Tom Clancy (@Annapi - I stopped reading them also once Jack Ryan made president - Clancy's politics and hero-worship of certain macho male and military stereotypes were too obvious to me in his stories at that point and I could not stomach it.) Stieg Larsson's 'Girl With' series. Just to name a few. But generally speaking, those are obviously written by someone else as both authors names are prominent on the cover. It's marketing - both trading on the popularity (and profits) of the deceased while continuing to provide what a readership demands. I can also see wanting to 'keep the character and profits in the family' by having a child who wants to write take it over gradually. I may not like the product but I don't have to read it.

Famously, Agatha Christie wrote Curtain, Poirot's final case, and locked it away as she did not want anyone to be able to carry on her character after her death -- as had happened with Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Sue Grafton and her family made it clear after her death that Kinsey Milhone has no future cases, it ended with Y. There is something admirable to that. But nothing wrong if someone like Lee Child wants Reacher to continue in his son's hands.

And now we come to Patterson. I really don't have a problem if someone succussfully sets up a writing industrial complex where a stable of writers churm out books under a name - Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys come to mind - and it is clearly a ghost-writing business so to speak. What I have a problem with is pretending or marketing in such a way, as Patterson does, as if he's still writing them. Um, no. And for a very long time those who actually wrote them were NOT getting any credit or being identified. At least there are some books that Patterson has actually written -- but it has to be 25 years at least since he has. Readers still seem to believe he is actually writing all those books, and even those who track how many books an author has written to bruit the info as record-breaking count Patterson as the author of those books. He's not. And that bothers me. It's a bait and switch.

Here's a link to an excellent article about Patterson Industrial Complex. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/ma...

Janet Evanovich somewhat openly took a leaf out of Patterson' playbook when she started up a couple of series but claims to co-author them. Evanovich's name is in larger type but the real author is still prominent. Oh, and isn't Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series now written by her daughter?

I don't wonder about Stephen King, John Grisham and whether they are truly writing all their own books. There are many thriller and mystery writers who were incredibly prolific in their lives -- Agatha Christie, Mary Roberts Rinehart . Romance - Jude Devereaux, Stephanie Laurens, and many more -- Nora Roberts both mystery and romance and Jayne Ann Krentz under multiple pseudonyms. Isaac Asimov and Robert Jordan in SciFi/Fantasy. (Although Jordan's Wheel of Time series finished by someone else after his death). I do believe more often than not that writers are writing their own work, even if they are managing on average a book a year. Genre and series works in particular -- not having to start with new characters and locales (series) or plots (genres have specific tropes) does make the process easier I have to assume.

As for the Clinton/Patterson collaboration - LOVED it! I could see and hear Clinton in so much of that book - frankly it's the only Patterson I have liked in a very long time. I'm hoping for another.

Oh and one thing about Stephen King: the accident that nearly took his life did affect his writing. There is a definite pre and post difference. I believe he has written about the difficulties he had writing again. Many consider ghe first of his post-accident work as very weak.

I have mixed feelings about co-authored books. Sometimes they are good, but many times if it's with an already famous author it can lose something. But I do think that for some writers this is a plus since there is a lot involved in writing a book and if you have a team who complement each other well this can be excellent.

My son and I each enjoyed the Fox and O'Hare series, which was co-written, but felt that the last one wasn't as good. It turns out that Janet Evanovich wrote all of the rest with one co-author, but the last one with her son and while it tried to be the same, it lost something since her son wouldn't have had the same insights and touches as did Lee Goldberg.

I don't really have an opinion, but I just wanted to throw out one duo that I thought of. I don't know enough about them or their writing process, but:

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.