This week Forbes published their annual list of the highest paid writers. Novelist James Patterson led the pack with $70 million. Next in line was Twilight Saga author, Stephenie Meyer with $40 million, followed by Stephen King with $34 million.

Thrillers still earn the most, as the list included Ken Follett, Dean Koontz, and John Grisham. Romance novelists Danielle Steel and Nicholas Sparks also made the cut, earning $32 million and $14 million respectively. J.K. Rowling closed the list at #10, but did not publish anything in 2010.

Readers may recall last year when King criticized Meyer while praising Rowling. King also offered his opinion on several adult writers sharing the highest paid authors list. King called Patterson a "terrible writer" and said "sometimes [Koontz]'s just awful."


http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/authors/james_patterson_tops_forbes_highest_paid_authors_list_172034.asp?c=rss

when will our own authors get this rich?

When these ones get richer.

Phew, apparently this list is for 2010. My water almost broke seeing Stephanie Meyer in 2nd.

Patterson is not bad and his books are simply the easiest to read but he's certainly not great.

Koontz is a King knock off. Many times he comes alarmingly close.

King's one to talk. He's absolutely awesome but his bad books are many and that fact is mitigated (almost rubbed off) by the fact that his great books are plenty more

Why's Dan brow not on the list ?

Good question. His The Lost Symbol wasn't so great and I think it was 2009.

vescucci:

Good question. His The Lost Symbol wasn't so great and I think it was 2009.

J.K. Rowlings didn't publish any book this year but she was on the list. I'm beginning to think Mr. Brown's last work was over-hyped, plus it's still in hardcover which literally means a good number of people are yet to buy it.

Probably it has to do with the cummulative sales of the author's books this year. I really don't care jare. I hate the list anyways. Stephanie Meyer? Puhleeze!

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the list just goes to show that suspense/thrillers are the best genres out there. IMO there's nothing so fantastic about james patterson. most of his works are co-authored with someone else and his stories are just not mind boggling like king or koontz. i agree with king on the part that koontz is sometimes terrible (read The Face and see what i'm talking about) but so is he.