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
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