The 17 Top-Earning Authors – 2014

Every year, Forbes announces the top-earning authors in the world. These are the top-earning authors of 2014.

Forbes has announced the top-earning authors of 2014. John Green (The Fault in our Stars), Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl) and Veronica Roth (Divergent) make their first appearances on the list. It is worth noting that authors of the fantasy and science fiction genre, with a strong young adult following, are also making inroads into a list that has been dominated by romance and crime.

James Patterson tops the list. He has sold more than 300 million books and writes, or co-writes, up to 14 books a year. He has had 76 New York Times hardback best-sellers and he has worked full-time as an author for 18 years. Read more about him in our article, Literary Superman, which includes a section titled ‘James Patterson in Numbers‘ (as at March 2014)

The 17 Top-Earning Authors of 2014

(See how they compare to the list of 2013)

1. James Patterson – $90m
2. Dan Brown – $28m
3. Nora Roberts – $23 million
4. Danielle Steell – $22m
5. Janet Evanovich – $20m
6. Jeff Kinney  – $17m
7. Veronica Roth  – $17m
8. John Grisham  – $17m
9. Stephen King – $17m
10. Suzanne Collins – $16m
11. J. K. Rowling  – $14 million
12. George R R Martin – $12 million
13. David Baldacci – $11m
14. Rick Riordan – $10 million
15. E.L. James – $10 million
16. Gillian Flynn – $9 million
17. John Green $9 million

How was this list calculated? Natalie Robehmed from Forbes says, “We look at print, ebook and audiobook sales from Nielsen BookScan figures, consider TV and movie earnings and talk to authors, agents, publishers and other experts. Earnings are tabulated from June 2013 to June 2014 and are pretax; other fees are not deducted.”

What do you think of this list?

Source for list: Forbes

by Amanda Patterson