Thank you. What are bookshots . Hopefully, they are a revolution in reading and the way we look at books. At the least they are going to be an evolution. They are under 150 pages, relatively inexpensive, and hopefully impossible to put down. Its like one of my regular books on alex cross, except at, like, 145 pages, very tight. With a bookshot, you can get on the train, you can go to work, you get on the train and go home, and youve read one. So youve accomplished something, which is kind of cool. So the slogan is all thriller, no filler, and is that what makes you think somebody will pick up one of these, rather than a magazine, or go online . Bookshots are like reading a movie. I mean, theres no fat, its just all story, hopefully with good characters. So if you like alex cross, heres an alex cross you havent read before, but itjust happened so quickly. Here in england were going to start with six, so its kind of a category of being alex cross, there will be a zoo, theres one about the royals which is kind of fun, theres one about a big diamond heist. Recently i was interviewed in my office and i pulled out these eight very deep drawers, and i have 107 of these bookshots that are either finished now or in process. And of the 107, i would say 80 of them are stories that i created. So its like, oh my god. In fact, the person interviewing me just went, like, this is insane, this is crazy. I said, i agree, this is insane. But i think for readers, this is going to be a real boon, because theyre addictive. Youve written some of them, but like your full length novels, you employ a team of co writers. Just tell us a bit about how that actually works in practice. I wrote last year over 2000 pages of outlines. My outlines are always three or four drafts. So its an insane amount of writing just that. And usually what ill do when i co write a book is ill write an outline. For these, the outline might be 30 something pages, and itjust goes chapter, by chapter, by chapter. And what i will do with the co writer is ill give them the outline, i will say please contribute to the outline, because thats useful, and it gets the co writer feeling involved in the process. The template for the bookshots is that every single chapter moves both the characterisation and the story forward, and turns on the Movie Projector in our heads. So if thats not happening, meaning that you cant see it, you cant feel it, you cant taste it, you cant smell it, if its not moving forward, if im not interested in the character, iwill say, hold it. Weve lost something here. Now make suggestions. 0ccasionally its that i didnt figure out the outline correctly, more often its that the co writer is, you know. Laughter. But well course correct. Yes. Now, ive read. If you look at them, theyre smaller, obviously thinner, you know. Hopefully on all the trains and the planes youll see people reading this kind of smaller book. Ive read that you work seven days a week, 52 weeks of the year, is that true . Do you not even take a day off for Christmas Day . Christmas i would say would be a very light day. But generally it is seven days a week. Somebody said, youre lucky if you find something you like to do, and then its a miracle if somebody will pay you to do it. And thats my situation. With doing these bookshots, this has been the most fun year of my life. Really . Because i love to tell stories, and i was kind of blocked with the books that i had, because i had the alex cross series and the womens murder club, and private, and its like, we dont need any more hardbacks. So there was no place for me to let my imagination go, and now there is. I will have more content than marvel by the end of this year. Its Little Wonder that youre known as the busiest man in publishing, notjust because of the number of books youre writing, but also because of the time and the money that you spend on championing literacy. Why is that so important . For me, the most important thing is getting kids reading. Because, if our kids dont become at least competent readers, especially kids who are at risk, how are they going to getjobs, how are they going to go through school . If they get through, if they are 10 or 11 years old and are not competent, they are going to be a drag on the society, on the city, on all of us, and its going to make for a much harder life for them. As individuals, i cant do much to solve global warming, or healthcare crisis, or whatever. But as an individual, we can all get the kids in our homes reading, mostly. We can help the local school, we can help the local libraries. Libraries are a big issue right now, and how they get funded in england, thats huge. Ijust hope that people will stand up and go, our libraries are really important, so we need the money for our libraries. How much does your interest in this stem from the fact that you had a son who was a reluctant reader . Jack is a bright guy. When he was eight years old, that summer we said, youre going to read everyday. He said, do i have to . We said, yes, unless you want to live in the garage. Because we read in our house. We said, this is going to be painless, were going to go out and find books that youll really like. So we went out and got a dozen books, we got him a perchackson, a wrinkle in time, one of mine. By the end of the summer, jack had read a dozen books, and his Reading Skills went up dramatically. Ultimately, they have sat scores in america, so a perfect score in reading is 800. Jack had an 800 in reading. Hes going to an Ivy League College next year. In terms of what can happen, if you take charge with your children, and make it your responsibility. Theres nothing more important than a mother and father, grandparents too, making sure their kids read. Its good you get them out and they get some exercise, thats a positive, but theyve got to be able to read. You are hugely successful, a writer of commercial mainstream fiction. Do you hanker after writing the Great American novel . I have already, theyre just commercial i love what i do, i think it serves a purpose. On my gravestone, james kept a lot of people up late at night. And bookshots are going to be one of the reasons. Bookshots are a revolution. This is going to change the way people read. James patterson, its been great to talk to you, thanks so much. Hgppy happy new year. There will be contrast in conditions to start the new year with Better Weather in the north and wintry conditions on the site. There is a blanket of cloud across england and wales. 0utbreaks of rain, heavy in places. You can see this orange colours which represents the last of the warmer air. The cold northerly wind continues to move southwards. As they cold air begins to dig into the back edge of the rain we could see wintry weather over the high ground in england. The last of the milder air across the south east, but it will not feel like that because of the rain. The temperature will continue to fall. Late brightness pushing them towards north wales and the north midlands. A lovely day in scotland, some showers in the north, but then the temperatures will fall away. This will bring more showers. There may be accumulations of snow in Northern Scotland. In this out the rainbow clear and it will be driving the end of the night, although it will stay wet. Elsewhere it will be cold with frost and i still watch out for across northern areas. The showers will continue through Northern Scotland on Monday Morning with accumulations of snow, but elsewhere it will be a lovely break day. It will be cold and you will need to wrap up as those temperatures will be in mid to no single figures and with the wind it will feel colder. Temperatures below zero a cross will feel colder. Temperatures below zero across much of scotland. It will be cold on monday night. Clear skies and light winds for england and wales. Widespread frost here. There will be more of a breeze. 0n tuesday and wednesday High Pressure will dominate. There will be a good deal of sunshine. For scotland and northern ireland, the clouds will be thicker and towns. That is how it is looking. Have a lovely day. This is bbc news. The headlines at 2pm a manhunt is underway in turkey for the gunman responsible for killing at least 39 people in a packed nightclub in istanbul. This is the scene live outside the club this afternoon. The turkish president has called it a heinous attack. Police in 0ldham are looking for a hit and run driver who killed 12 year old Helina Kotlarova and seriously injured her 11 year old cousin. They were Holding Hands together. They were Holding Hands together. They were Holding Hands together. They were crossing the road, and the car was, they were crossing the road, and the carwas, like, they were crossing the road, and the car was, like, driving they were crossing the road, and the carwas, like, driving too they were crossing the road, and the car was, like, driving too fast. The royal family have attended a new years Day Church Service in sandringham, but without the queen, who still has a heavy cold. Also in the next hour hull officially becomes the uks city of culture. The year long Arts Festival gets underway with a huge fireworks