James Patterson's name may be on the cover. But who really wrote the books?
Long story short... it’s complicated.
Patterson uses a specific process when working with co-authors. In this case it would’ve been Gabrielle Charbonnet, who was identified in 2008 as the co-author of at least the first four Maximum Ride books. (I think it’s likely she also worked on the later books, and she definitely worked on Hawk.)
Here’s how Patterson’s process is described in a 2010 New York Times Magazine article:
The way it usually works, Patterson will write a detailed outline — sometimes as long as 50 pages, triple-spaced — and one of his co-authors will draft the chapters for him to read, revise and, when necessary, rewrite. When he’s first starting to work with a new collaborator, a book will typically require numerous drafts. Over time, the process invariably becomes more efficient. Patterson pays his co-authors out of his own pocket. On the adult side, his collaborators work directly and exclusively with Patterson. On the Y.A. side, they sometimes work with Patterson’s young-adult editor, who decides when pages are ready to be passed along to Patterson.
And here's how Charbonnet, in a post on her website, described things from the cowriter's point of view:
Jim provides a detailed outline, every chapter, scene by scene, as well as backstory and commentary. And we talk about it. Then I write a rough draft and send it to him in chunks. He reads it and gives me feedback. He’s very clear about what’s working and what’s not working. He’s generous with praise and constructive with his criticism.
This archived page links to a “teacher’s guide” to the first Maximum Ride book, which gives us a little insight. Here’s what the outline looks like for six sample chapters:
I would say these are fairly detailed outlines – you could sum all this up as "The flock arrive in NYC and, after narrowly avoiding some Erasers, go to the library to do some research". So Patterson has laid quite a bit of groundwork, which Charbonnet then further fleshed out. Both of them made an important contribution to the final text, but until that article in 2008, Charbonnet wasn’t credited as co-author by name anywhere.
So... it depends on what you mean when you ask "who wrote this book?". Who had the idea and wrote the outline? James Patterson. Who fleshed out that outline? Gabrielle Charbonnet. Without their combined work, the final product could not exist.
Go back to the Articles index.
Last edit: 15 March 2022.