The A-rod of Writing

Alex Rodriguez make more than you. He makes more than me. He makes more than everyone you know put together, and he has not worked a day this year. He's about to get banned from baseball for life. We're all a little happy about that. While there is only one A-Rod, every profession has someone who is making a lot of money based on past achievement and writing is no exception. Who are the A-rods of writing, and should we hate them?

Dan Brown wrote the Da Vinci Code is certainly one candidate. The book has the most ludicrous opening murder of any mystery EVER written. An old man is killed by an albino, while dying, he manages to run around the museum to plant an elaborate series of clues. Imagine the recent Jodi Arias murder trial. Just imagine if the victim while bleeding to death had gone around the household and did the same.  Still the book had some twists and turns and made a half decent film. I have not read Brown's latest book Inferno. I don't begrudge him his success.

John Grisham might be the A-rod of writing, but I will say he is more like Derek Jeter, a likeable guy whose skills have diminished over time. A Time to Kill, his first book was a good thriller with southern charm. The Firm had a killer premise, but the fifty or so books he's written since then all seem to blend together.

It is too early to A-rodize (that isn't a word yet, but it will be) some of the authors of the teen series like Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Twilight et al. I am enjoying seeing them try some different things. Perhaps they could do a crossover series. Who wouldn't want to see Harry have to fight off Team Edward and Team Jacob in a Hunger Game All star match up?

I would say the only author whose success I clearly resent is the author of 50 Shades of Grey. Don't know their real name and can't pick them out of a line-up if I did.

As for me, my first book was clearly my best and my biggest seller. Does Biogenesis lab have something for writers?