When American writer James Patterson makes an announcement, it is usually big news; because he’s a bestselling author, of course, but also because he’s a game changer in publishing. Unafraid to be a maverick, Patterson has created a very successful author brand with acute business acumen:

• To date, he has published 147 novels, but he hasn’t written them all by any means: he has a team of ghostwriters that fuel his publishing machine.
• He has become a much-examined case study of an author who drives his own marketing in creative and rigorous ways.
• In 2013 he took made a statement through adverts in Publishers Weeklyand The New York Times Book Review that read: ‘If there are no bookstores, no libraries, no serious publishers with passionate, dedicated, idealistic editors, what will happen to our literature? Who will discover and mentor new writers? Who will publish our important books? What will happen if there are no more books like these?’

Last week, then, when James Patterson announced that he was pioneering a new kind of novel, the world’s media sat up and took note.

‘BookShots’, as they will be called, will be short, cheap books of fewer than 150 pages that are plot-driven. The aim, according to the New York Times, is that the reader can get through a BookShot in a single sitting. Patterson said: ‘You can race through these – they’re like reading movies.’

The target reader for these books is one who doesn’t engage well with the current offering of standard-length novels. Put simply, Patterson wants to get more people reading (his novels).

It’s an interesting idea, don’t you think, and certainly in keeping with the relentless pace of modern life. I can see that a quick, action-packed story works well for the thriller genre, and that a commuter, say, could really enjoy being able to complete a book on the way to work.

How may this move towards plot-driven novellas affect developments in publishing. Will we see a drive for simple, fast stories? For romance and young adult and science-fiction without complexity but readable in just an hour?

In reference to this news story, the Guardian notes that: ‘Many bestselling authors of the past 20 years have mostly written bulky books, usually in series – EL James, Stephen King, Stieg Larsson, Hilary Mantel, George RR Martin and JK Rowling.’ A ‘reign of obesity’ is the term applied, and apparently there are ‘significant numbers of weary, eye-strained, time-poor readers’.

I wonder, however, just how many readers do want to race through a book. I know that I do not: when I read, it is in order to unwind and to escape. I read to enjoy the journey, not merely to get to the destination.

What do you think? Are you a weary, eye-strained reader tired of the ‘reign of obesity’? Do you love to devour a book in a single sitting? Would you like to see ‘BookShots’ rolled out across the board? Or do you simply love big books? I would love to hear your thoughts.