Who writes all those books?

Is it possible for Nora Roberts/JD Robb to have written over 150 books? Is that physically possible? The pulp writers of the thirties and fourties wrote several novels a year, sometimes a dozen to keep up with the monthly publishing schedule so I know it's possible. My father in-law asked me this question yesterday (we talk about publishing sometimes since I'm a writer and he loves to read) and I said, "Sure, it's possible."

He looked at me disbelievingly. "Nahhh," he said.

"It's possible," I repeated. "I know Lawrence Block writes a book in a month." (though truthfully I think he has the book in his mind and is plotting it out way before then, so his process may not be able to be restricted to that one month).

Vince shook his head again.

"I was at a writer's retreat with him and I saw the manuscript pages. He told me himself. He writes the whole thing in one month."

"Yeah but 150 books by this Roberts?"

I shrugged. "It's not what I'm capable of, but I know it's possible." We went on like this for a while and then moved on to other topics. But today, after a day out on the beach with my family I'm still thinking about it. So I checked her website to see what her pattern is. Here's the list:

1981 - 1 book published
1982 - 5 books published
1983 - 8 books published
1984 - 10 books published

... and so it goes until Montana Sky (G.P. Putnam’s Sons) in 1996 when she hits her 100th novel. She regularly published 8-12 books a year since then. As I said, this isn't my process - I wrote a novel in a year a ways back, but that was writing 20 minutes a day every morning before I went to work. I worked at Gay Men's Health Crisis that year doing AIDS work and was so stressed/exhausted by the time I finished work I couldn't write at night so that 20 minutes was all that I had to keep the writing pistons firing. That was a good pace for me then and still is now. I'm on my fourth year of working on my latest book. BEcoming a father five years ago is my excuse for being slow with this one. Slow but steady. That's my motto.

Do I believe Nora Roberts could write all those books at that pace, all by herself? I'd have to read one of her books to really have a valid opinion if I was going to say no. But my father-in-law says she's pretty good - especially her time travel series under the JD Robb moniker - even if he wonders whether she actually wrote them herself.

I'm probably better off talking about someone like James Patterson, whose book, The Jester I did read and enjoyed for it's storytelling but not for it's depth or stylistic nuance (there was little). But then he's only published some 40 books since 1976. He doesn't seem quite as prolific - even if these days he's a two to three book a year guy. Still, many of his newer books are co-authored with others. Did he co-author before and just never tell anyone about it? It doesn't really matter to me one way or the other. William Shatner on the other hand and the books he's written, well... don't get me started on him. I don't care if he is Captain Kirk.