Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Andrew Peterson (author)


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. SpinningSpark 18:28, 1 September 2016 (UTC)

Andrew Peterson (author)

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promotional article for non notable writer. Copied from his about the author page (with a proper license), it still shows the inadvisability of doing so, for it reads like what it is: an advertisement. His books are not notable: WorldCat shows holdings of between 80 and 150 libraries, which is trivial for works of this genre.  DGG ( talk ) 03:07, 1 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Authors-related deletion discussions. Coolabahapple (talk) 02:38, 5 August 2016 (UTC)

Ryce, Walter. Monterey County Weekly [Seaside, Calif] 16 Oct 2008) because it is paywalled, I am reproducing it here:
 * sources Here: is an interview with Peterson who is the author of audio books that are strong sellers.  Of course, MarketWatch is not exactly the Wall Street Journal.  And there is this  long profile in a California weekly (Burning Book
 * Local adventure hobbyist releases a novel that carries a momentum to match his life's spirit.
 * Wearing a short-sleeved. Hawaiian shirt tucked into crisp jeans that end in sensible shoes, the 50-year-old Andrew Peterson could be a genial math teacher. Or a store manager on his day off.
 * But Peterson is-quite purposefully-an expert rifleman, accomplished diver, neophyte helicopter pilot and volunteer firefighter, and an action thriller author learning choice lessons about writing along the way.
 * At age 6, Peterson learned something at a summer camp that would ultimately make its way into the book: how to shoot with a bolt-action rifle. He continued to develop the "hobby," winning state championships in Arizona and Nevada, beating Marine Corps shooting teams in each.
 * "Guns have a negative connotation in our society," he says, visiting Salinas from his obscure in-county outpost between King City and Paso Rubles. "If you can get past that, it's a lot of fun. I'm not a hunter. I'm a target shooter."
 * He's also a volunteer firefighter in the unincorporated South County community of Lockwood. He wanted to give back to the community, he says, which brought him in proximity to some risky business.
 * "There was a fire about a mile from my house, before the Big Sur fires. Five acres. I was on the front lines-close enough to get sprayed by retardant from the firefighting bomber plane."
 * He's also gone to great depths in his chase for the new thrills.
 * "I've always enjoyed being in the water, so I thought, 'Why not go [deeper] underwater?'"
 * He went beyond recreational diving and received technical training in scuba diving off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, exploring uncharted underwater caves and diving 200 feet into shipwrecks off the Bikini Atoll where the government exploded nuclear weapons in the 1940s and '5Os. Called "penetrative diving," it's among the most dicey styles of scuba.
 * He almost admits that the danger is part of the lure, he just has a different name for it: "challenge."
 * A self-storage real estate developer for 23 years, Peterson seems equally content with the quiet life afforded him by his remote home, where he lives with his wife of 19 years. But his thirst for challenge has motivated and moved him, and at least once nearly killed him.
 * "I like challenging things in my life," he says, "like scuba diving. And helicopters.
 * "I was training with my [helicopter] instructor, coming in for a Pinnacles landing when we got caught in a downdraft. We were going down into the bank. The instructor and I did the same maneuver in tandem: We applied left cyclic [control stick], turned the helicopter to the left, and followed the contour of the slope, sideways, down to safety."
 * Another recent challenge threw up a patch of turbulence: He began writing. A "big Star Trek fan," Peterson started-but didn't finish-a script for an episode of Star Trek: Next Generation. He did finish an action thriller manuscript, which he sent to freelance editor Ed Staclder, who's worked with thriller authors Greg lies and Ridley Pearson.
 * "He told me to abandon that book and work on another one," says Peterson, looking as deflated as if that rejection had just happened.
 * Maybe because Peterson couldn't resist die challenge, he did just that: nine months of writing followed by three months of editing until he was "sick of [the manuscript]." He sent it in. And in November 2007, Andrew Peterson became a published author.
 * "The warm glow from the cabin's I window told a lie. The scream from within told the truth."
 * That's how Peterson's adrenalized thriller First to ÊÁÉ begins. The protagonist is Nathan Daniel McBride, a former Marine sniper, CIA operative and assassin ("He's the only man with the skill necessary to get the job done," reads the book's back-jacket blurb). The U.S. government recruits him to defeat a band of rogue would-be terrorists.
 * The story tackles topical moral questions, like the use of deadly force and torture against terrorism. In a scene in which McBride is coercing information from two "miscreants," he tells them: "This is an anti-Miranda situation. You do not have the right to remain silent."
 * It's a precisely written story, if unsubtle, with political overtones and a vigorous paramilitary streak-fetish, even.
 * "Nathan McBride is an anti-hero," says Peterson. "He's not a Boy Scout But he still retains his humanity."
 * A sequel is planned as Peterson promotes First to Kill on a book tour of 97 West Coast Costco stores.
 * "I'm not saying I've extinguished all my thrill seeking, but I'm not a kid anymore," he says. "I don't know what's next I just hope something exciting happens."
 * Copyright Monterey County Coast Weekly Oct 16-Oct 22, 2008.E.M.Gregory (talk) 15:51, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
 * more on sources (Grit Lit: First get educated, then entertained, Knapp, Myles. Oakland Tribune [Oakland, Calif] 20 Sep 2009) is an interesting essay on men's action lit. Here's the part specific to Peterson, " "First To Kill" by Andrew Peterson. (Leisure Books $7.99 softcover, 356 pages, www.dorchesterpub .com) Nathan McBride was the best when he did a Michael Jordan. He walked away. Put his violent life as a Marine sniper and covert CIA operative behind him. But a ton of Semtex explosive disappeared, and the U.S. government coaxed him out of retirement.  
 * It's action, action, action. "... (T)his guy was solid muscle and huge, taller than Nathan by an inch or two. With his shaved head and hourglass torso, he looked like a bouncer. To anyone else he might have looked intimidating. To Nathan, he was three hundred pounds of hamburger with an amphibian's brain attached."
 * Can you say "Wowee-Zowee!"?" E.M.Gregory (talk) 15:56, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Note that there also exists a contemporary author of juvenile fiction named Andrew Peterson, who probably merits an article due to the popularity of his series "The Wingfeather Saga." (Books series can help draw in readers, Perry, MelissaView Profile. The Ithaca Journal [Ithaca, N.Y] 01 Oct 2015) If article is kept, title should be changed to clarify that hit is the author adult action thrillers.E.M.Gregory (talk) 16:03, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Keep. Although I started out as a skeptic on this badly written, poorly sourced WP:FANCRUFT pr WP:PROMO. and with a joke about one of the first sources I found NOT being the WSJ, I now see that the Wall Street Journal has in fact written him up; I just added that to the article. Lots of sources exist, just add keywords such as thriller character name or book titles to his name when searching. (with apologies for long comments above, I was trying to make it easier for other editors to evaluate password protected sources.)E.M.Gregory (talk) 16:03, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of United States of America-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 23:18, 7 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of California-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 23:18, 7 August 2016 (UTC)

 Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, — Sam Sailor Talk! 01:30, 8 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Please note that "Wowee-Zowee!"?" (above) is not my phrasing. That was the reviewer for the Oakland Tribune.E.M.Gregory (talk) 14:51, 14 August 2016 (UTC)

 Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, North America1000 10:00, 15 August 2016 (UTC)
 * I forgot to link to the Wall Street Journal article that I referenced, "Amazon to Speed Up Authors' Royalty Payments", It notes that " one title published by Kindle Serials, Andrew Peterson's thriller "Option to Kill," has sold over 70,000 copies and is now available as a finished book digitally and as a trade paperback. The first episode of "Option to Kill" was published in September; the completed book was available digitally in late November and the paperback went on sale in early January.".E.M.Gregory (talk) 11:03, 15 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Comment The "review" that E.M. Gregory cites in full is a splendid example of a totally unreliable source -- or would be if it didn't give the show away in the first line "a local hobbyist" An article in even WSJ saying nothing more than that the book was published and sold a respectable but small numebr of copies is indeed from the other extrmee of published sources, but says nothing significant about the author.  DGG ( talk ) 04:06, 28 August 2016 (UTC)

Keep per the significant coverage in multiple independent reliable sources.  The article notes: "Like the main character in his debut novel, Andrew Peterson is a helicopter pilot and an expert marksman. Yet, aside from that, the fictional Nathan McBride doesn't outwardly have a lot in common with his creator. And from a marketing standpoint, that's probably a good thing. 'There's really nothing very interesting about a real estate developer who's also an architect,' said Peterson, who lives near Paso Robles. Peterson's writing career, which received a huge boost from bestselling author Ridley Pearson, is rooted in his childhood, when the La Jolla native would read science fiction books in his room.  ...  In junior high school, an English teacher predicted Peterson would one day become an author, but Peterson didn't believe him. Instead, he studied architecture at the University of Oklahoma. Becoming a draftsman didn't interest him, though, so he got into real estate development, specializing in storage units. The career switch fared well for Peterson, who drives a Hummer and took lessons to become a helicopter pilot. But he still had the bug for writing. After reading authors like Stephen King, Dean Koontz and John Saul, Peterson tried writing a horror novel in 1990."  The article notes: "After boarding a turboprop military transport plane, novelist Andrew Peterson knew immediately that the 3 1/2-hour flight into a war zone wasn't going to be anything like his previous -- first-class -- flight across the Atlantic. But it would offer an accurate glimpse into an American soldier's life in Afghanistan. ... Peterson coordinated the visit, called Operation Thriller II. The trip included high-profile writers Clive Cussler, who has written more than 50 books, including the popular Dirk Pitt series; Mark Bowden, whose book 'Black Hawk Down' became a popular action movie directed by Ridley Scott; Kathy Reichs, the forensic anthropologist whose books inspired the TV show 'Bones'; and Sandra Brown, a thriller and romance novelist who has 80 million copies of her books in print. Less a household name, Peterson has written two novels, both featuring Marine sniper Nathan McBride -- 'Forced to Kill' and 'First to Kill,' the latter of which was recently optioned for a motion picture. 'I'm sort of the rookie of the group,' said Peterson, a trained architect, who made a living as a real estate developer and self-storage entrepreneur before turning to writing full time. 'I only have two books out; my fellow authors are really well known.'"</li> <li> The article notes: "Although Andrew Peterson writes novels about daring acts and undercover intrigue, he hasn't personally experienced any of this in real life. Until now. Peterson, a resident of the Bryson Hesperia area in southernmost Monterey County, will visit the Middle East with other best-selling thriller writers in late September as part of a special USO/Armed Forces Entertainment tour. The author of 'First To Kill' (Leisure Books, 2008) and 'Forced To Kill' (Audible.com, 2011) said it's the least he can do for the soldiers serving our country. ... Born and raised in San Diego, Peterson earned a bachelor's degree in architecture, but ended up becoming a successful real estate developer and self-storage entrepreneur. He and his wife, Carla, moved to their 120-acre spread in Bryson Hesperia a decade ago to enjoy the peace and quiet of this rural area near Bradley. Peterson has been writing short stories and novels for many years, but it wasn't until 2008 that his first book was published. He had started out as a horror writer, but realized it wasn't a good fit for him, and switched to his present genre."</li> <li>The Monterey County Weekly article and MarketWatch articles mentioned by .</li> </ol>There is sufficient coverage in reliable sources to allow Andrew Peterson to pass Notability, which requires "significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject". Cunard (talk) 01:27, 29 August 2016 (UTC) </li></ul>
 * Comment it is sufficient evidence to reject these sources from their very titles: "local author'. Local news coverage of local authors is both indiscriminate and unreliable Essentially any author will get covered, and they well in general not be covered objectively. The books are furthermore insignificant--Worldcat shows at total of les then 80 holdings for all of them together, and this is a genre where significant books are in many hundreds of libraries.   DGG ( talk ) 05:20, 31 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Just for the record, I called that profile in the local paper a profile - not a "review," I try to be careful about that distinction. Sources I and others found on Peterson comprise  a handful of feature stories/profiles in local newspapers, although the  Oakland Tribune is a major daily and since he lives on the coast, given the scale of California and that bear of a drive from Oakland to Seaside it's not a local paper.  He also has a couple of very minor prizes, one is very local. The thing that did catch my attention are the two articles on his book sales, in MarketWatch and the Wall Street Journal where he is described as an early example of strong digital sales with his thriller "Option to Kill."  Libraries may not have bought it, but 70,000 copies is not nothing.  I hope an editor or 2 who regularly look at author notability will take a look at this (at best) marginally notable paperback writer; despite the excessive length of this page (largely my fault) the facts here are pretty simple.E.M.Gregory (talk) 12:23, 31 August 2016 (UTC)


 * Delete. I came here to close this, but I can't, so I'll throw in my two cents. The article reads like a promotional blurb, especially given the repeated use of the author's first name. AfD isn't cleanup, but this usage suggests problems. Stuff like this is cringe-worthy: "While on his book signing tour, Andrew took time to visit VA hospitals and sit with USA military veterans. He gave away hundreds of books." I agree with DGG that the coverage is local in nature; there is no indication of broader notability. If you strip away the marketing fluff there's probably not much left. Mackensen (talk) 02:21, 1 September 2016 (UTC)
 * Delete and I've been planning to comment; none of this is sufficiently convincing especially since the links above, as shown, are not substantial; and also the nomination has clearly insinuated and shown why this is still not going to be enough. SwisterTwister   talk  05:45, 1 September 2016 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.