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Top ten list - highest paid authors

Hugh

Hugh

Member
From the BBC, October 3, 2008: BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Rowling 'makes £5 every second'

1. JK Rowling - $300M
2. James Patterson - $50M (notice the HUGE difference between 1 & 2)
3. Stephen King - $45M
4. Tom Clancy - $35M
5. Danielle Steel - $30M
6. TIE - Grisham and Koontz - $25M
7. Ken Follet - $20M
8. Janet Evanovich - $17M
9. Nicholas Sparks - $16M

I guess it's safe to say none of these authors are living on peanut butter and ramen.

Let's get busy people, there's still a fortune to be made out there.
 
But how much are the real writers getting? That list of "authors" are not worth (any sum if you ask me) the paper they write their garbage on...let's be frank. Commercial prose (like commercial music) is not real writing - it's just what sells. It's trash really. High selling waste-of-time.
 
Research and tell us how much these true writers earn: Thomas Pynchon, Salman Rushdie, Italo Calvino, Kazuo Ishiguro, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Ian McEwan, Barbara Kingsolver, Joyce Carol Oates, Jose Saramago, Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison, and John Updike (among other notables).
 
I bought 1 James Patterson book.Couldn't make it past 2 chapters, and each chapter was about 3 pages.And peanut butter is pricey!:cool:
 
AquaBlue said:
But how much are the real writers getting? That list of "authors" are not worth (any sum if you ask me) the paper they write their garbage on...let's be frank. Commercial prose (like commercial music) is not real writing - it's just what sells. It's trash really. High selling waste-of-time.
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I have not a complete book from any of those ten authors. I am currently reading A Good Woman by Danielle Steel and I was moved to tears in the first chapter. Her writing is most certainly not garbage and I can't believe you would have the audacity to say she is not a "real" writer.

Waste of time? Hardly. More like sour grapes on your part I would say.

I lift my glass and toast all ten of them!
 
I certainly do not mean to be rude Hugh. I'm a good guy. I just want to shed light on other more worthy writers that you may find to be a step-up from those on the list at the head of this thread. So please don't get mad. I just tend to say thing as they are...no offense. Let's be on good terms and discuss the issue constructively.
 
When I was a younger reader I gravitated toward King and other similar writers. Then I learned about other writers that wrote prose that blew my mind I was hooked. I believe you are on that springboard of discovery. Buy a novel from one of the author I listed and see what you think. I am pretty sure you will carry such words with you for a lifetime. Trust me Hugh.
 
The internet is a tough medium for communication. Perhaps you should re-read my post and imagine me in a slightly drunken state, in a small pub in Dublin with a broad smile across my face as I toast the ten authors. I have no doubt whatsoever that there are many talented writers, even more talented than the ten I toasted, that are not pulling down million dollar paychecks. But there is no reason for them not to be. Hence the, "let's get to work" comment in my original post.

I am not in the least bit mad.

But I have difficulty discussing anything constructively after a few drinks. (insert smiley face here)
 
Since that link is from 2008, I wonder if the woman who wrote the Twilight books has broke into the top 10 yet. Those books are everywhere it seems.
 
Hugh said:
But I have difficulty discussing anything constructively after a few drinks. (insert smiley face here)
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At least you were not driving.Have you read His Bright Light by Daniel Steelle? I am not a fan but this one is a non fiction about her son.
 
Libra said:
At least you were not driving.Have you read His Bright Light by Daniel Steelle? I am not a fan but this one is a non fiction about her son.
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No I have not. The book I'm reading now is the first book I've ever read by her, and it's the first fiction I've read in about twenty years. I do remember the interview with Danielle Steel on 60 Minutes after her son died. I remember there was a small portion where she was filmed at her typewriter working. I wonder if she still works like that? I write by hand in a spiral bound notebook because I constantly stop, go back and correct and change.
 
At the risk of being put in the stocks in the Book and Reader town square I'm going to voice my support of Rowling. She earned that money.

When I was actively volunteering at my son's school as a reading helper I was stunned to see some of the kids I was working with carrying around these books. I'm talking about kids who had very little interest in reading and struggled. Suddenly they were carrying around these huge tomes! I saw those same kids at the bookstore when the new books were released. Her books have done much to introduce a love of reading to many kids the world over. Those kids someday will graduate to Ishiguro and Atwood and so forth. I enjoyed them myself. Not everything has to been deep and mind boggling. Some things you read just for fun.

So I say, you go girl! (Ducking rotten vegetables.) :D
 
There is nor real or unreal netween writers. Everyone finds his or her niche sooner or later. Some, like Patterson or King reach the masses more than others. That doesn't make them unreal. It makes them rich.
 
Yes but should the art of writing be created just for cash/fame or for the art of writing itself. If the ladder is true, the money will follow.

Those book listed are drug store books. Let's keep that in mind as we continue with this thread.
 
AquaBlue said:
Yes but should the art of writing be created just for cash/fame or for the art of writing itself. If the ladder is true, the money will follow.

Those book listed are drug store books. Let's keep that in mind as we continue with this thread.
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Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions.

Are you saying that the books mentioned don't deliberately appeal to the senses or emotions?

Can art be objectively defined? Or is art defined subjectively? If a person's emotions are touched by the books mentioned, then isn't it art to that person?

You mentioned that these are drug store books. I don't understand the relevance. :confused:
 
I agree that these books are just commercial writing and a load of crap, the only books i have are all of the harry potters as i read them when i was younger.
 
Dollars to the popular

The discussion between 'low brow' and 'high brow' novels has been raging since novels became acceptable fare in the 19th century. Now like then no one could agree upon what was 'low' and what was 'high' and especially what they were worth. I remember a 60 MINUTES program with Nicholas Sparks who with his publisher was waiting next to teh fax machine to see if his, at teh time, latest book was going to be on the NYT Bestseller list that week.
The publisher admitted that the bottom line is sales and writers like those mentioned in the first post pay teh freight for (in my opinion) the real writers.

I am an old lady with alot of books behind me and have read popular novels and at some point grew out of them. I tried to read 'Dolores Claiborne' by King and couldn't get past page 2 of his prose. So if we want to have the books by writers in that wonderful list with MOrrison and Atwood et.al. we must leave room for the airplane or summer reading tomes.

I also believe that everyone needs a break from 'their' literature and a popular novel or a less intense one is good for teh soul.

ENJOY
GERBAM :flowers:
 
striking the balance...

For me, it is all about finding that balance between a great story and a writing style that has some real literary merit. King and Patterson can definitely supply the stories, probably why they are adapted to the big screen quite often. But for me the writing leaves a little to be desired (although I have enjoyed some of Stephen King's books).
I don't begrudge anyone their likes or dislikes, and I certainly don't begrudge these authors their fortunes. Like Mmyap's mention of J.K. Rowling being a "bridge" of sorts to greater literary finds, I think the same might be said for most of the authors on the list.
 
A slight aside here, but I wonder how much Rowling earned from book sales and how much from films and merchandise?
 
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