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James Patterson and MrBeast wrote a novel together, and now the publishing industry wants to give them more money than you or us will ever personally be able to count in exchange for it. And sure, our first thought when we saw this story was “This bold new partnership could be, for the Ghostwriting Sciences, what the Manhattan Project was for nuclear physics.” But this is a cynical take, and beneath us all, because who are we to question the flowering of the creative arts between two titans of their individual disciplines, who’ve found some kind of creative connection with each other and whoops we just looked up what the book is about, and it’s pretty much just Squid Game, huh?

Don’t take our word for it: Here’s the logline for the novel, per Deadline, which doesn’t have a title yet, but does have what’s apparently an eight-figure bidding war from the publishing industry for the rights to print and sell it: “Players fight to survive deadly tests held in dangerous locations around the world, as they battle to beco*e ‘The One’.” Which is, indeed, exactly what it would sound like if we made up a fake book to make fun of the idea of MrBeast writing a novel, but whoops, reality done outdone us again.

The untitled book represents Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson’s first novel, and Patterson’s 200-somethingth. The Alex Cross creator is no stranger to co-authors, of course (he’s written more books with another person’s name on them than without, we’d estimate), although they usually don’t rival him for fame. (A few exceptions include Dolly Parton, who co-wrote 2022’s Run, Rose, Run, and Bill Clinton, who co-penned two books with Patterson in 2018 and 2021.) In any case, publishers apparently love the idea (or the marketing potential) of these two guys teaming up: Film, TV, and novel rights are all being shopped around right now, with that “eight-figure” number being quoted for the publishing rights alone.