Writing solo proves rewarding for Peter de Jonge
Susan Watts, New York Daily News
Peter de Jonge was an advertising copywriter before co-authoring best sellers.
There was a time when Peter de Jonge was a best-selling author, but he quit that gig.
He’s now a thriller writer with a just-released new book, “Buried on Avenue B.” As the second in a series starring NYPD Detective Darlene O’Hara, the book has been well received, but sales are nowhere in the league of, say, James Patterson.
Speaking of Patterson ... de Jonge and Patterson were each other’s first, in a manner of speaking. It was a novel co-written with Patterson that first put de Jonge’s name on the best-seller list. And de Jonge was the first hired pen the internationally branded Patterson brought on as a co-writer.
“Actually, I thought he was going to fire me,” says de Jonge, recalling the day Patterson stepped into his office at the famed J. Walter Thompson ad agency and closed the door.
At the time, Patterson was already a successful author with a series featuring Alex Cross, a Washington, D.C., forensic psychologist. Patterson kept that going while holding down his day job as chairman of the agency. De Jonge was a copywriter who Patterson came to with an idea that turned out to be his first step toward becoming the world’s best-selling author. He has sold more than 250 million copies.
“I did just enough work to get by,” says de Jonge, who would hole up in his office writing freelance magazine articles. One boss had already tried to fire him, but Patterson had refused to let that happen. Evidently he had plans for the man.
“He came to me with this idea for a book that we could write together,” de Jonge says. “It was about a guy who was a lot like me, a guy who hated advertising, a guy who wanted to do something else. And once he gave me the outline, I had a lot of freedom in writing.”
“Murder on the 17th Green” came out in 1996, got good reviews and was eventually made into a television movie.
De Jonge went on to write two more books with Patterson, “The Beach House” and “Beach Road,” while the increasingly famous Patterson went on to hire a stable of writers to start a slew of different series.
“I didn’t realize our collaboration was the start of something,” de Jonge says. “Probably he did. He’s always five steps ahead of everyone else.”
The process was straightforward and one that Patterson has followed ever since with his writers. Patterson does a detailed outline, the writer writes and Patterson redrafts as he sees fit. The payment is “generous,” but there are no royalties.
“For me it was work, it was a job. I wasn’t hugely attached to the material,” de Jonge says. “For him, the speed mainly matters. He wants the story to fly along.”