Highest-Paid Authors: James Patterson, Stephenie Meyer, Stephen King And More

Forbes:

Publishers are feeling the heat, with hardcover sales weak and the rise of e-books promising to upend their business models. But the world's 10 top-earning authors are making out just fine, earning a combined $270 million over the 12 months to June 1.

James Patterson's $70 million in earnings vaults him to No. 1 on our list, up from second place two years ago. The prolific thriller writer's latest deal, signed last fall, involves penning a carpal tunnel-risking 17 books by the end of 2012 for an estimated $100 million.

Read the whole story: Forbes

Comments

[playsindirt]

05:16 PM on 08/23/2010

Seeing Meyer on this list makes me want to barf. She's partly responsible for the dumbing down of America's youth.

[pamiety]

11:21 AM on 08/23/2010

Stephen King is one of my favorite authors. He builds his characters and his story where you are able to escape into the story. A lot of people don't like him because of his genre(that's when I suggest Stand By Me and Misery) . I'm currently reading Under the Dome.

[SF TKF]

11:08 AM on 08/23/2010

Can we PLEASE stop calling Patterson an author? He's a brand. A very successful brand. He's not even quiet about this fact. He writes and outline, his "co-author" writes the actual book, and then Patterson does a copy edit.

[bobell]

10:01 AM on 08/23/2010

james patterson "co-authors" books with lesser known authors. which makes me think that someone else writes the book, and he adds his name. the last cross book seemed to be just that, they changed a few names and called it a book about cross' ancestor. Stephen King will always have a place in my heart. sick, twisted and funny. but his books seem to have lost something since his accident. there is a depression that wasnt there before.

[KalNJ]

10:01 AM on 08/23/2010

These aren't authors, these are the top most literary industries.

Book Reviews: http://www.ManOfLaBook.com

[ydrittmann]

11:56 PM on 08/22/2010

The difference between authors and writers.

[SangZe]

07:49 PM on 08/22/2010

I hear god's cashing in. . .

[wordsfromawoman]

06:46 PM on 08/22/2010

What better evidence of the serious dumbing-down of the American public than this list of ten most successful authors.
www.wordsfromawoman.wordpress.com

[ZDuck]

12:22 PM on 08/22/2010

Meyer...egads.

[Kap Hop]

10:41 AM on 08/22/2010

Who knew 100 monkeys could be so prolific as to make 70 million a year.

[cameron d]

10:07 AM on 08/22/2010

Notice that all these writers are experts at pumping out crap pop-lit?

Seriously, if you think that Patterson is going to write 17 books by the year 2012, and that any of them are going to be good (or his), you're out of your mind.

[pleblian]

03:07 AM on 08/23/2010

Oh Gawd...

I thought I was alone

[valeskas]

03:39 PM on 08/21/2010

Always, always I get my books from our local library. Less expensive.

[JaneQCitizen]

11:24 AM on 08/21/2010

I hate Forbes' website. You'd think they could buy some bandwidth with all that money!

Can some one cliffnote it?

[VapeGirl]

09:53 AM on 08/21/2010

::sigh:: Some day, I'll be a published 'book' author --- if only I will be able to get a publisher to even look at my book. I hope my book sells well enough so that I can re-invest it into something to help people. I do not wish to be rich, nor famous, I just a have dream, and it seems the only way to make that dream come true is to write a story. It takes a lot of money to start a company these days, and the sad thing is many people with plenty of money(money to spare), who could help me start that company, are either to greedy to let it go or just do not care. So --- I suppose I will have to go to plan B(there is always a plan B, you know). Write my book, make monetary capitol for the initial investment, and in a few months, if my book sells well --- who knows --- maybe someday I can bring up this post and reply, "Mission accomplished." Wish me luck, because I think I am truly going to need it. ^_^

As for the authors in this article. The only ones I have read are King and Follett. Some of my favorite reads are written by Michener, Louis L'amour, Heinlein, Chyrreh, Orwell and of course Tolkien. They may not be hard reads - but to me it was always about the stories and they tell good stories. :)

[c-tom]

01:49 AM on 08/21/2010

No one ever went broke underestimating the bad taste of the American public. - H. L. Mencken

[olddognewtrick]

01:40 AM on 08/22/2010

And a lot of people got rich from it!