Top 12 highest paid authors

Top 12 highest paid authors

Aug 04 2016

According to Forbes Magazine, the world's top 12 highest-paid authors earned a combined $269 million over the last 12 months.

Forbes arrives at its estimates by looking at print, e-book and audiobook sales from Nielsen BookScan, while attempting to factor in TV and movie earnings.

The top earners for the year to June 2016 are:

1. James Patterson ($95 million)
2. Jeff Kinney ($19.5 million)
3. J.K. Rowling ($19 million)
4. John Grisham ($18 million)
5. Stephen King ($15 million)
5. Danielle Steel ($15 million)
5. Nora Roberts ($15 million)
8. E.L. James ($14 million)
9. Veronica Roth ($10 million)
9. John Green ($10 million)
9. Paula Hawkins ($10 million)
12. George R.R. Martin ($9.5 million)
12. Rick Riordan ($9.5 million)
12. Dan Brown ($9.5 million)


Thanks to Shelf Awareness for collating the core numbers into a tidy list rather than the slow loading visual display found at Forbes - albeit it would seem that three authors tied for 12th position, in which case there are 14 on the list, not 12.