James Patterson pledges $1M to help independent booksellers

(CBS News) James Patterson has already sold more than 280 million books worldwide. He also holds the Guinness record for the most No. 1 New York Times best-sellers -- 57 in all.

And though Patterson's books continue to be a success, Patterson is concerned about some of the places where his books are sold -- independent bookstores. To help, Patterson is giving away $1 million of his own money to benefit these brick-and-mortar stores in the new age of the e-reader.

Patterson said on "CBS This Morning," "We're making this big transition right now to e-books, and that's fine and good and terrific and wonderful. But we're not doing it in an organized, sane, civilized way, so what's happening right now is a lot of bookstores are disappearing, a lot of libraries are disappearing or they're not being funded. School libraries are not being funded as well. This is not a good thing."

Patterson said the effort is a start. "It's going to help," he said. "And it ranges from -- 'we have two people here who haven't had a bonus in seven years. Here's some money.' And the only thing we're going to ask is that, one, we feel it's a viable bookstore and secondly that you have a children's section."

For more information about Patterson's pledge to save the independent bookstores, go to JamesPatterson.com.

And for more with Patterson on his books for kids and the importance of reading, watch his full interview above.