The folks at mediabistro have an interesting Q&A with James Patterson, who has built a zillion-dollar publishing conglomerate with a stable of authors and a brand of fast-paced, action novels. Patterson delivers some straight talk about the industry, and his phenomenal success. Some excerpts from the interview with Jeff Rivera:

On creating books "for boys" -- "I believe that probably the best way to get most kids reading is to just give them books that they love. There's millions of kids in this country that haven't read a book that they like and that's not a good idea. And it's even worse for boys because they are more impatient."

On the key to his success -- "My success revolves around the fact that I am fairly analytical, logical, have a pretty good IQ but I've got street smarts too. You know, a lot of people who have nice IQ's are just dumb as a brick when it comes to thinking about how other people think and what they might like and how to act in public and things like that."

On the possibility of creating e-books directly -- "You know, it is something you think about every once in a while, but my life is good. I like the publisher and the people there and am not interested in hurting them. And I don't particular want to do something that would create more upheaval to people in the publishing business."