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Who Are the World's Highest-Paid Authors?
Forbes just released its annual list of the world's highest-paid authors, and together they earned a whopping $269 million over the last 12 months.
Topping the list—no surprises here—is James Patterson, whose fiercely prolific output has made the 69-year-old one of the world's bestselling author with more than 350 million books sold. Between June 2015 and June 2016, the thriller writer published more than a dozen titles and his pre-tax earnings for the year topped $94 million.
In a distant second place is children's author Jeff Kinney, the Diary of a Wimpy Kid creator, who made $19.5 million in the past year.
Coming in third is J.K. Rowling with $19 million. Continued sales of her Harry Potter books, the new play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, as well as Universal's Harry Potter theme parks contributed to her earnings.
The list was compiled using estimated income from sales of books, ebooks, and audiobooks as well as money from television and film adaptations.
Other familiar names on the list are John Grisham, Stephen King, Danielle Steele, and Nora Roberts. The only newcomer this year is Paula Hawkins, whose bestselling The Girl on the Train, and subsequent film deal, earned her $10 million.
Here is the Forbes list in full with some Goodreads suggestions from each author.
James Patterson—$95 million
Jeff Kinney—$19.5 million
J.K. Rowling—$19 million
John Grisham—$18 million
Stephen King—$15 million
Danielle Steele—$15 million
Nora Roberts—$15 million
E.L. James—$14 million
Veronica Roth—$10 million
John Green—$10 million
Paula Hawkins—$10 million
George R.R. Martin—$9.5 million
Dan Brown—$9.5 million
Rick Riordan—$9.5 million
Who's your favorite highest-paid author?
Topping the list—no surprises here—is James Patterson, whose fiercely prolific output has made the 69-year-old one of the world's bestselling author with more than 350 million books sold. Between June 2015 and June 2016, the thriller writer published more than a dozen titles and his pre-tax earnings for the year topped $94 million.
In a distant second place is children's author Jeff Kinney, the Diary of a Wimpy Kid creator, who made $19.5 million in the past year.
Coming in third is J.K. Rowling with $19 million. Continued sales of her Harry Potter books, the new play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, as well as Universal's Harry Potter theme parks contributed to her earnings.
The list was compiled using estimated income from sales of books, ebooks, and audiobooks as well as money from television and film adaptations.
Other familiar names on the list are John Grisham, Stephen King, Danielle Steele, and Nora Roberts. The only newcomer this year is Paula Hawkins, whose bestselling The Girl on the Train, and subsequent film deal, earned her $10 million.
Here is the Forbes list in full with some Goodreads suggestions from each author.
James Patterson—$95 million
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Who's your favorite highest-paid author?
Comments Showing 1-50 of 281 (281 new)
message 1:
by
Lynn Diane
(new)
Aug 11, 2016 03:35PM
Stephen King!! I also considered John Green, but the King is king!
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None of these are among my 40 favorite writers. I like Steinbeck, Tony Hillerman, Bill Bryson, David Rosenfelt and many others.
I guess if you churn out books by formula and on schedule you get paid more. So many good authors that deserve more pay are missing from this list.
I like Danielle Steel and Nora Roberts. The Fault In our Stars being the only book I've read by Green, I don't think I can call him a favourite.
I know it sounds snobby, but it's like music business. Audience used to address the highest remunerations towards Led Zeppelin or Beatles and now it's Britney Spears and 50 cents.I don't mind as long as I can still get great stuff all around the advertisements. And yet it's sad how many ppl (me included) is missing the best -and most suitable to their genuine tastes- operas in favour of what industry is pushing forward.
None of them...... mine is Suzanne Collins for Hunger Games
I read for the story content. I occasionally scan the best sellers lists but rarely find anything that interests me. I guess I'm a bit of a rogue reader since I pretty much ignore the latest reading trends. So many if them have been disappointing. Having put that out there, I have to add that I find myself captivated by Anne Perry. Her work is consistently well done and never mind numbing. She never fails to deliver quality regardless of the genre.
Di wrote: "I guess if you churn out books by formula and on schedule you get paid more. So many good authors that deserve more pay are missing from this list."My thoughts exactly!
I don't follow the best selling list of authors, what truly matters is that you enjoy what you read and that on some level the words of the author touched you.We all have different tastes and opinions that's the beauty of having free will. What one person may consider as great, another person will see it as not great. I love the variety of choosing who i like as a author, not because he or she is on the best seller's list, rather because what they wrote spoke to me. Viva la Difference!
From the list shown on this page I would choose Stephen King. Mind you, I find I get a bit bored after reading several books from the one author, sometimes they are too formulaic.
So.... everyone who has ever made a TV or a Movie deal off their books. Good to know that's the only way to make big money as an author. *snark*
Ann wrote: "I don't follow the best selling list of authors, what truly matters is that you enjoy what you read and that on some level the words of the author touched you.We all have different tastes and opini..."Here here!
I don't think some of these poeple commenting actually read the question. The question was: who is your favorite highest-paid author. For those of you who just don't seem to get it, that means, of the authors listed above, who is your favorite?My favorites are: Riordan, Green, and Rowling.
Why is James Patterson making so much more money than number two on the list? I've hardly ever heard of him.
Emily wrote: "I don't think some of these poeple commenting actually read the question. The question was: who is your favorite highest-paid author. For those of you who just don't seem to get it, that means, of ..."Good point. Of this particular list I have read 9 of the authors. Dan Brown is the one I have read most consistently and enjoyed the most.
I have two favorites: Patterson and Grisham. Favorites not selling so many are Follette and McCullough.
George Martin , J.K Rowling and Dan brown.
Mark Lawrence for me he writes something different. Most of the top list are mass producers 12 books in a year the quality disappears.
JK! Obviously, Harry Potter is a one-of-a kind story that will stand the test of time, but I also LOVE her Cormoran Strike series written under the Robert Galbraith pen name. Fanatastic!
I like all authors and also have all books. I want to use Kindle for book, hope free book for Kindle to all books. Than buy all the books. I like to save money. :) But Kindle is good wise and save and cheap price and also free too. Thank you for ur supports.
My favorite of these (and just a favorite in general) is John Green. I'm a bit surprised on James Patterson, especially being the highest. I know he's very popular, but he co-writes almost all of this books with other authors (not a problem for me, just a surprise).
Some of the best books I have ever read were by unknown authors who have never made it to the best selling list of books and authors. Great authors write for the joy of storytelling and passing on thier emotions and knowledge to others, not for making the best seller's list.Storytelling is a art.
My favourites are easily J.K. Rowling and Rick Riordan... Followed closely by Veronica Roth and then John Green.
James Patterson and Stephen King were obvious. They are very well known to everyone even if you haven't read their books. JK Rowling, yes. I knew about Danielle Steele and Nora Roberts because most of their books have been made into lifetime movies.I am surprised that Nicholas Sparks, Stephanie Meyer (sort of) and RL Stine aren't on the list.
KING, Misery is my favorite novel he's done, and of course J.K. Rowling.
Oy, where to start, GR forcing us to focus on rich authors on our own home pages... and the relationship of the 1% authors to the rest of us who are authors and readers... though I do know they are popular, even here on Goodreads. But this is I take it an Amazon (a rich corporation) question, not a typical readerly question, as they would be concerned with books and their relationship to money more than most of us. I try to hold my nose that Goodreads is an arm of Amazon now, but sometimes that nose gets rubbed in it from time to time... Sorry for the curmudgeonly response to all who are having fun with this question, ignore me.. . .
That's pretty much who I expected to be at the top. No surprises there.
My favourite author on this list is J.k. Rowling followed very closely by Rick Riordan.
I've only tried J.Grisham out of these 14 and I was in raptures about his The Rainmaker. O, and the screen version of The Pelican Case also made the best impression, the more so with Julia Roberts and D.Washington. Naturally, I choose him. S.King is not in line with me, at least on screen.
