The Ethics of Author Mills

I have one regular patron who, every month, requests the newest James Patterson. She and I know full well that James Patterson does not truly write all the books he sends out every month with his name on them. I have only noticed in recent years that Patterson has begun including the names of his ghostwriters on the covers (though never bigger than his name). Yet still, when this patron comes looking for a new book, it is always James Patterson's name she tells me. The books are still his, even if the ghostwriter is acknowledged. 

While this is not exactly like the examples Louis Menand (2018) describes in his article for The New Yorker, James Patterson and other author mills could very well be described as hoaxes. By writing their name on the cover of the book, something only authors do, they are establishing themselves, if not the author, as one of them. If this isn't true, and a 2017 study by Simon Fuller and James O'Sullivan deduced that James Patterson functions more as a content manager than a full-time writer, then isn't the continued practice of including their names on the books a sort of hoax?

Rick Riordan, the famous creator of the Percy Jackson universe encompassing multiple spinoff series and multiple mythological worlds, began "sponsoring" Own Voice authors to write similar stories of young kids interacting with the realized mythologies of various world cultures. Recognizing that he, a white man, did not have the lived experience to represent those cultures in his writings, he looked to authors of various cultural backgrounds to create those stories. By sponsoring them, Riordan gives those authors a wider audience that almost ensures continuing book deals. It's a smart move. While some authors were relatively unknown until their partnership with Riordan, others have been writing for years with great success. Under Rick Riordan Presents, authors such as Roshani Chokshi, Graci Kim, Rebecca Roanhorse, Kwame Mbalia, and J.C. Cervantes bring their cultures to life in a way that Rick Riordan could not. 

Even though there are examples of authors pretending to be someone who does not exist and does not match up to their lived experience and yet still successfully tricking people into believing that they are real, doing so is an incredibly risky affair. Was Daniel James wrong to market himself as Danny Santiago, a young Chicano who tells the story of his upbringing in Los Angeles? Menand claims that at the time of the book's release and soaring success, Latino authors had no idea Danny Santiago was actually a white man. But in the end, Santiago was revealed to be James, and public distaste for the hoax was made clear. If the truth hadn't come out, how long would it have lasted before he was found out, if seemingly no one was the wiser?

This idea isn't isolated to the book world. In 2022, a man in California sued the Texas Pete hot sauce company when he learned the hot sauce is actually manufactured in North Carolina. Noah Goldberg of the LA Times quotes the plaintiff's attorneys saying the reason for the lawsuit is that the many past consumers of Texas Pete may have been unfairly tricked into believing that they were enjoying "authentic Texas hot sauce" delivered by the brand name and the cowboy logo (Goldberg, 2022). I've enjoyed Texas Pete hot sauce in the past, and have assumed that it was made in Texas, but I personally don't believe I was tricked-- certainly not maliciously. 

This case still raises a great example of how, like Menand states, marketing under false pretenses can be seen as unethical. While I did not feel cheated by false Texas hot sauce, others were. Similarly, while some people are not put off by James Patterson's ghost-writers, others are. The public is not a monolith by any means, so caution should always win the day. It is what is done with the story that matters. Telling a false story as if it were true that could harm others, telling a story of harmful stereotypes as if they were true, or pretending to be someone you're not to gain influence or prestige can be examples of unethical storytelling. But in that case, has James Patterson won influence and prestige through unethical means? 

Well...not technically. Though many of his fans are still unaware of how little writing he actually does for the number of books he puts out, I doubt that such a revelation would disband that fanbase in its entirety. Like my regular patron, she knows Patterson isn't writing every book she reads like clockwork, but that doesn't stop her from coming in every month. It's the stories she's after, not the author. Perhaps there is a suspension of disbelief that one is able to apply when it's a story you wish to hear. Patterson is quoted in Fuller and O'Sullivan's study:

    "Above all my brand stands for story. I became successful when I stopped writing sentences and started writing stories. Editors think it's about style. It's not. It's all about story." (Fuller & O'Sullivan, 2017)

Is the story enough?

References

Fuller, S., O'Sullivan, J. (2017). Structure over style: Collaborative authorship and the revival of literary capitalism. Digital Humanities Quarterly, 11(1). Retrieved from http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/11/1/000286/000286.html 

Goldberg, N. (2022, October 11). California man sues maker of Texas Pete hot sauce because it’s produced in North Carolina. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-10/texas-pete-hot-sauce-lawsuit-made-in-north-carolina

Menand, L. (2018, December 3). Literary hoaxes and the ethics of authorship. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/12/10/literary-hoaxes-and-the-ethics-of-authorship