JAMES PATTERSON BECOMES FIRST AUTHOR TO TOP THE MILLION MARK FOR EBOOK SALES

The fiction production line that is James Patterson has hit the million mark with copies of his eBooks downloaded -

James Patterson's publishing company says that he's the first author to exceed 1 million sales in electronic book delivery.

The Hachette Book Group says Patterson has moved 1.14 million units of his books for devices like Kindle and the iPad. The big seller, by far, is the most recent: Patterson's novel "I, Alex Cross," which was published both electronically and in hardcover last fall. Since his first novel in 1976, Patterson's books have sold more than 205 million copies.

There's no third-party monitor of e-book sales, so Hachette used its own figures and checked other prominent authors. The publisher didn't find any others who had cracked the million mark.