He’s also donated over $26 million dollars to both his and his wife’s college alma maters. Patterson has been very charitable with his success as he has donated over a million books to schools and youth programs in under-privileged areas throughout the country. He is the current Guinness Book of World Records record holder for most #1 New York Times bestsellers. James has sold more than 350 million books worldwide and continues to build on that number. He was to complete this ambitious project by the end of the year 2012. The deal committed him to co-write or write six young adult novels and eleven adult novels. In fact, Patterson signed a deal in September 2009. In this regard, he has worked with co-authors like Ashwin Sanghi, Maxine Paetro, and Mark Sullivan among many others. Patterson has often stated that his stories gain interesting and new ideas when he collaborates with others.
Some of the novels in the series have been made into many films, movies, and TV series. Incidentally, the Alex Cross series has been the most popular and best-selling detective series in the US in the past decade. There have been many more novels in the series. “The Thomas Berryman Number” was Patterson’s first novel and was published in 1976. The novels center on the character Alex Cross, a fictional psychologist. James Patterson is mostly known for his famous Alex Cross novel series. Patterson claims that sharing the responsibilities allows for more ideas to come to the fore, and helps to keep his novels and plots fresh.
While he has put his name to so many books, it is important to add that, especially in recent years, Patterson has shared writing credits with authors such as Maxine Paetro and Mark Sullivan. James Patterson’s Maximum Ride series features the young woman who can fly, Maximum Ride, the Daniel X series is based around the character of Daniel X, the Witch and Wizard series features Whit and Wisty Allgood and the Confessions series features the Tandy Angel, and her mysterious family, who all seem to be keeping secrets from each other. Patterson’s move into youth fiction saw the creation of the Maximum Ride series of novels, as well as Daniel X and Witch and Wizard series of books, as well as the Confessions series.
Michael Bennett is another character to feature in one of Pattersons’ series, as well as the Women’s Murder Club. As well as the Alex Cross series, Patterson has created the Private series of novels, which feature cities across the world such as London, Berlin and Sydney. He has created several series based around multiple characters, with his most prolific being the Alex Cross series, which has seen some of the books, such as Kiss The Girls and Along Came A Spider turned into movies. Since his debut novel back in 1976, Patterson has put his name to currently 150 books, with the majority of them being in the crime fiction genre. The book follows Berryman on his hits and also those leading the manhunt for him. The Thomas Berryman Number was Patterson’s first foray into the world of published literature, and the titular character is a hit-man named Thomas Berryman. It was during this period in advertising that Patterson wrote and published his first novel. After graduating from Vanderbilt University with an MA in English, Patterson moved into the world of advertising, which is the career he stayed in until the mid 1990s.