With the increasing popularity of Kindles, iPads, Nooks, and other e-readers, book sales have gone down since 2010. Hardcover books were once a golden ticket, but recently, sales have gone down more than 23%.
J.K. Rowling has always been one of the highest-earning authors in the world. Shockingly, she didn’t make this year’s top ten. Maybe things will change once she releases her Harry Potter Collection in the e-book form. Forbes investigated and compiled a list of the world’s top earning authors.
#10 Nicholas Sparks- $16 Million
#9 Jeff Kinney- $17 Million
#8 John Grisham- $18 Million
#7 Dean Koontz- $19 Million
#6 Rick Riordan- $21 Million
#5 Stephenie Meyer- $21 Million
#4 Janet Evanovich- $22 Million
#3 Stephen King- $28 Million
#2 Danielle Steel- $35 Million
#1 James Patterson- $84 Million
I am not surprised by this list as it is all about the marketing. As consumers we tend to believe the hype. Quality writing may not make you the best earning author but if you are good you can still earn a very decent living!
I think these are all crap books, except for Stephen King’s Carrie.
I read a Patterson book once. The Beach House. Tops my list of the worst books ever written.
None that I’d take home even as charity!!! I guess this is an indirect praise to the effectiveness of marketing!
Sort of agree – except some stand alone books by some of these authors are quite good AND extremely grateful to Wimpy Kid – those books caught the interest of my higher functioning autistic nephew and got him reading!!!!