August 22, 2010
Highest Paid Writers Earn Megabucks
Dear Writers,
News about the earnings of several popular novelists caught my attention this week, and--no surprise--they write thrillers and romance, not literary fiction.
As one of the highest paid writers in the world, James Patterson earns $70 million a year, and he still does not use a computer to write! All of his 51 New York Times bestsellers were written in longhand. Many are also co-written with unknown authors who write the first draft from an outline provided by Patterson. Learn more about his writing process in this INTERVIEW.
Movie rights caused 37-year-old Stephenie Meyer, who sold 26.5 million books in 2009, to place second with earnings of $40 million for her vampire romance novels. These earnings and continued media attention also moved her to #59 out of 100 on the Forbes Celebrity List.
Stephen King remained in third place (behind JK Rowlings & Patterson the previous year) with earnings of $34 million, and Danielle Steele took home a mere $32 million.
JK Rowlings, who topped the list with $300 million last year fell to the bottom of the list with earnings of only $10 million.
For the entire top ten earners CLICK HERE.
One final bit of unrelated news: BookClubBuddy.com, the place to discover books and authors, is up and running. Please bear with us as we add material to the site, but Register Now and the odds are high that you will receive free books, for yourself or your book club, signed by the authors.
Keep writing, and have a great week!
--Pearl Luke