“Old” White Authors Who aren’t James Patterson or James Patterson can Bite Me
I was at the library’s used bookstore yesterday. James Patterson books took up nearly an entire floor to ceiling bookshelf. At Target there were at least four of his books displayed prominently before any other author.
I have never read a James Patterson novel. Thanks his to his recent tirade on how it is racist white male authors can not get work, I never well. I’m sure he doesn’t care being one of the best well paid people with their name on a book. I say ‘name on a book’ because he doesn’t even write his own stuff these days. He creates a short outline and hands it off to someone else to write, usually another white male. On rare occasions it’s a white female. One time it was a black female author. One time.
According to the New York Times, 89% of books published in 2018 were written by white authors. The Diversity Baseline Survey found that 85% of the people who acquire and edit books are white as well. (Buzzfeed News)
The thing is, it took Patterson three days to apologize for what he said. THREE. DAYS. Three days was long enough to be thoroughly drug on social media. This screams, “Oh shit, I really made myself look like an asshole. I better apologize where everyone buys my autobiography that is coming out.” What really bothers me is the people who are sure this was a publicity stunt to promote said autobiography. If it was a publicity stunt, it was a crappy one, both tone deaf and insensitive. Must be nice to be a straight, able-bodied, heterosexual, Republican, white dude. Just saying.
As someone who used to be an author, he knows words have meaning. Knowing that, he should know better than to say something he doesn’t mean, publicity stunt or not. Either way, I’m sure his reputation will recover because white people.
My feelings about this have been conveyed in print so many times people who won’t use the f-word that I don’t need to put my thoughts in writing. One of the best posts was written by a black writer on Medium and this opinion piece on Think. What I do want to do is share some white male authors who aren’t Patterson.
Neil Gaiman. Gaiman is one of my favourite authors ever. I will preorder his books blindly. Neil Gaiman wrote it? Must have. No questions asked. I traumatized my best friend by having him read the short story Snow Glass Apples. I will never live this down. Gaiman has written a bit of everything and is usually involved in adaptations of his work to ensure no one ruins it. Did I mention he also writes diverse characters?
Chuck Palahniuk. Author of Fight Club. We’re not supposed to talk about Fight Club, but I break the rule often. Another author whose books I will buy blindly. He has his own writing style and often tackles the darker side of being human.
Stephan King. I have read all of Kings books up until, I think, The Tommyknockers. I kind of burned myself out on King’s work while going through a hardcore horror phase hellbent on reading all of his books. I am looking forward to the new book he has coming out later this year, though. King’s latest claim to fame was taking on TERF J.K. Rowling on Twitter over transwomen being real women.
George R. R. Martin. I was going to read the Game of Thrones series until I learned his thing is killing off all his characters. That is a me problem because I cry over book characters. Still a better person than James Patterson.
John Scalzi. I am probably one book away from adding him to my blind buy list. First, he writes science fiction. Second, I love his brand of humor and satire. I have a small stack of his books here that I have yet to read.
William Gibson, responsible for creating the cyberpunk genre and comedy writer David Sedaris. A number of Sedaris’ books are on my TBR after reading Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk. Tom Clancy is one of my husbands favourite authors.
And here are a few popular authors I know nothing about, and I have never read their work. At least they haven’t made the news for saying something totally stupid and incorrect. Ken Follet, Dan Brown (he wrote The Da Vinci Code), Clive Cussler, Nicholas Sparks, John Grisham, and Dean Koonz.
Funny thing about this list is it is one I came up with off the top of my head when ranting to my best friend about Patterson. I wish I could name that many well known female authors or even authors of colour off the top of my head. It’s hard for white male authors to get work because racism my ass.
