Structure over Style: Collaborative Authorship and the Revival of Literary Capitalism

James Patterson is the world’s best-selling living author, but his approach to writing is heavily criticised for being too commercially driven — in many respects, he is considered the master of the airport novel, a highly-productive source of commuter fiction. A former marketing professional, Patterson uses his business acumen to drive sales of his novels, which are largely written in conjunction with lesser-known co-authors. Using stylometry, this paper analyses the extent to which Patterson actually contributes to the writing of his novels, situating his process within the context of literary capitalism and the novel as a force of modernity.