TL;DR: talk a bunch of shit about James Patterson, but the dude puts his money where his mouth is.

My partner is a retired bookseller. There's a lot of history and context over which I'm hand-waving. But Patterson has an annual [thing] wherein he awards a grant to employees of an independent bookstore for that employee's cause du jour. I forget the numbers, but it's significant. Like... life-changing quantities of money relative to the bookseller's position and proposal.

My partner has won the James Patterson annual award for [some things she was getting into before we met] about five (seven?) times. She is assed out and is not responding to my poking her to ask. Patterson has funded things like my partner's hand-painted/drawn shelf-talkers, even if they weren't for his books. Patterson funded my partner's friend's launch of an independent bookstore.

Hate on Patterson all you want (oh... and I do). But the dude really gives back.