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According to Forbes, the world’s highest paid author is JK Rowling, who made $300 million JUST LAST YEAR from sales of Harry Potter books, movies, and merchandise.
Other authors on the list include James Patterson, Stephen King, and Tom Clancy. Here’s what Forbes had to say about JK:
It was wizardry that transformed J.K. Rowling from a destitute single mother on welfare into a bestselling billionaire. Her adventures of teenage magician Harry Potter and his classmates at Hogwarts became a children’s literary sensation in 1998, when Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone became a publishing hit. It and the six subsequent books have now sold upwards of 375 million copies worldwide. The final one, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, has sold some 44 million since it came out last summer–including 15 million in the first 24 hours.
– source
You’ll definitely want to visit the Picture Gallery of all these authors; I plan on taking a few of these names to the library the next time I go!
Bloomsbury was pretty lucky that they decided to take her up, otherwise they’d still be a tiny publishing company. JK Rowling’s story is amazing, but it’s sad that it’s so hard to succeed in the world of literature – most fail …