Morning Meanderings… Highest Paid Authors

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)

Good morning!  I am on day three at camp.  I can not believe it has been three days already.  Yesterday I sat in on a really good talk about medications, I really took away a lot of notes on that.  Today we have a morning class on Yoga and relaxation techniques and this afternoon, I am going with a group by pontoon to the Dairy Queen.  😛 The weather has been beautiful!  I plan to write a full fledged recap on Saturday – with pictures.

This morning this funny little video was in my e mail:


I recently read this article about top paid authors and was a little surprised at where some of them fell.

 

The newly released Forbes list of the world’s highest-paid authors may include the usual suspects, but their wages can still be as shocking as a cleverly conceived plot twist. James Patterson topped this year’s list, earning $84 million between May 2010 and April 2011, up from $70 million the year before. Stephenie Meyer banked $21 million, half of her $41 million the previous year. J.K. Rowling made “only” $5 million, but the launch of Pottermore will likely alter that situation dramatically. The top earning authors were:

  1. James Patterson ($84 million)
  2. Danielle Steel ($35 million)
  3. Stephen King ($28 million)
  4. Janet Evanovich ($22 million)
  5. Stephenie Meyer ($21 million)
  6. Rick Riordan ($21 million)
  7. Dean Koontz ($19 million)
  8. John Grisham ($18 million)
  9. Jeff Kinney ($17 million)
  10. Nicholas Sparks ($16 million)
  11. Ken Follett ($14 million)
  12. Suzanne Collins ($10 million)
  13. J.K. Rowling ($5 million)

Do any of these surprise you?  I guess I would have thought J K Rowling would be higher up on this list.  And… I have to admit, I have never heard of Jeff Kinney who falls in the place of #9.

Any surprises for you on this list?

Any of your favorite authors here?

42 thoughts on “Morning Meanderings… Highest Paid Authors”

  3. Well, Jeff Kinney is currently coming up with new stuff in his wimpy kid series. There is another one out this fall. My elementary students really love his books. Rowling has nothing new.

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  5. I find it hard to believe that James Patterson is so far above all the others; Stephen King for instance. I would have thought that by now everyone would have figured out that he’s just mailing it in and ghost writers are doing the work. The books are terrible lately. I also thought Danielle Steele’s books would be selling less. In both cases, it’s just the name I guess.

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    1. He doesn’t surprise me so much Barbara as he is cranking books out (eve if they are with other authors) like candy. That used to bug me, but the other authors don’t seem to mind.. after all they are getting their name attached to Pattersons….

      I bet Patterson still makes a nice cut though. 😀

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  7. Hmm, I thought Rowling was the highest paid children’s author….and there’s Jeff Kinney. I didn’t think Wimpy kid books had reached the popularity of Harry Potter. Who knew?

    I’ll bet they’re not adding in all the Rowling movies and spin-off stuff, though.

    Some of the others have been around a long time, like Steel and Patterson…and, of course, Stephen King.

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  8. I would have thought Stephen King would be at least #1 or #2. And my granddaughter, as well as any other child her age I’ve talked to LOVE Jeff Kinney’s “Diary Of A Wimpy Kid” series so thought he’d be higher on the list.

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  9. Yeah, Rowling’s rank surprises me too. I wonder if those figures are for specific years? I know she hasn’t published in four years, so I guess that could make a difference?

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  11. That’s intriguing. I wonder what it was based on? JK gets much more than that. She gets a cut of all the merchandising and a percentage of the grosses for the movies, too, which is how an author becomes the richest woman in the world (other than the queen). Nora Roberts earns over $40 million per year. Just looks odd to me. And Jackie Collins? Really? Hmmm..

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  14. That’s probably a pretty high earnings for JKR, considering she hasn’t had a new book published since what, 2008 when Beedle the Bard was published. I wonder if that value includes the residuals and other earnings from the films, or if its strictly book sales. But once the Pottermore shop is open, she’ll be at the top, since there are several of us with atleast one set of the books who want e-books as well

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  15. I know who Jeff Kinney is just because my oldest boy loves the Wimpy kid books (and movies). I’m sure J.K. Rowling’s place on the list was much higher in previous years. I wish she would write more HP books!! 🙂

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  20. I can definitely see why Kinney is making more than Rowling. His books cover a huge range of children and I must tell you I ended up having to buy 10 copies of the latest last year for my school library and I STILL had a hold list. These sell like wildfire at bookfairs. I can definitely see it. 🙂 I can’t believe you hadn’t heard of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. There are movies now too, the second one came out this year. 🙂

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  21. Jeff Kinney’s Wimpy Kid books are never on the shelf at our library, they are constantly checked out. I can almost mark the beginning of the school year and end of the school year by these books returning home to the shelves. I am pretty shocked by Janet Evanovich! I never would have guessed her, instead of Nora Roberts, say. Very interesting list!

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