The Following are the 8 Best-selling Authors in the World
Each author comes from a unique experience. In spite of their struggles in personal and professional life, they were able to make big through consistent efforts. The success stories of these authors will certainly influence fans, avid readers, and the general public.
J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling was born on July 31, 1965, in Yate, England. J stands for Joanne and K stands for Kathleen. Kathleen is her grandmother’s name. She is popular for her books including Harry Potter series. Harry Potter has attained great popularity. It is one of the most popular books in the world. The films based on Harry Potter character are very popular. The Harry Potter children’s series is available in seven books. The British writer and screenwriter had won many awards.
Rowling’s books on Harry Potter became an international sensation in 1999. The first three books of the Harry Potter series were listed on top slots in the New York Times bestseller list. She had achieved great success with those books in the United Kingdom as well. More than 450 million copies of Harry Potter books were sold. The film version of her book, ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ was released in November 2001.
J.K.Rowling published a popular Novel, The Casual Vacancy in 2012 and it comes in the adult category. The crime novel, Cuckoo Calling was released in 2013. Her popular plays are Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and they were released in 2016. ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ is the great movie based on her literary works.
The net worth of J.K.Rowling is £650 million. Most of her wealth is generated through the sale of Harry Potter series. The other popular books written by her include The Silkworm, Career of Evil, The Tales of Beedle the Bard. She penned two books under Robert Galbraith. They are ‘The Silkworm and Career of Evil. The books were published in 2014.
Rowling was married to Dr Neil Murray, anaesthetist in Scotland. They had two children David and Mackenzie. Rowling had one child, Jessica from her previous marriage which ended in divorce.
Stephen King
Stephen King was born on September 21, 1947, in Portland, Maine. Stephen King is popularly known as King of horror stories. After his graduation from the University of Maine, he worked as a teacher. He was successful as a writer and made a good beginning with the horror novel, Carrie. The other popular publications are Shining and IT. Stephen King has a unique writing style and its attributes to best selling horizon in horror series. Most of his writings are adapted into film and television series.
He gets credit for selling more than 350 million copies of his books. King wrote for school’s newspaper while studying at the University of Maine. His first book was published while he was in school. The first story was published in Startling Mystery Stories. After the completion of his studies, he was unsuccessful in finding a job as a teacher. After finding a job in a laundry, he continued his writing. He worked as an English educator at Hampden Academy from 1971. In the same year, he was married to Tabitha Spruce, a writer.
His first book, Carrie became a huge success which inspired him to venture into fulltime writing. The novels talk about a troubled teen who would like to take revenge on others. The novel was adapted into a movie as Sissy Spacek. The other popular novels written by him are Salem’s Lot, The Shining, Firestarter, Cuju and IT. He published other books under Moniker which include Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork and the Running Man.
The books which were adapted for television series and movies include Cujo and Firestarter. They were released in 1983 and 1984 respectively. He published several books during the 1980s and 1990s. The American author has great publications on science fiction, fantasy and supernatural fiction. He became so sober with drugs and alcohol and quit them later and wrote ‘Needful Things’ after becoming sober.
James Patterson
James Patterson was born on March 22, 1947. He is a famous American writer and philanthropist and sold more than 300 million books, and he gets credit for selling more than 1 million e-books for the first time. James tops the Forbes highest paid authors for three consecutive years. Some of the best works of James Patterson include Alex Cross, Women’s murder club, Daniel X, Witch and Wizard. He has contributed stand-alone thrillers and romance novels. Patterson received the Literarian Award from National Book Foundation.
James Patterson was graduated in English from Summa Cum Laude, and he completed his Master of Arts in English from Vanderbilt University. He worked as an advertising executive for J. Walter Thompson. He retired from advertising in 1996 and devoted his time to writing. He was influenced by the great novel, Mrs Bridge written by Evan S. Connell. The first novel, ‘The Thomas Berryman Number’ written by James Patterson was published in 1976. His novels featuring Alex Cross are the most popular US detective series that were published in the last ten years.
James Patterson lives in Palm Beach, Florida with his wife, Susan. They have one son, Jack. His popular books ‘kiss the girls’, ‘along came a spider’, ‘alex cross’, and ‘middle school: The worst years of my life’ were into filmography. The books that contributed to TV series include a child of darkness, child of light, miracle of the 17th Green, 1st to Die, Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas, Women’s murder club, James Patterson’s Sundays at Tiffany’s and Zoo. James Patterson has sponsored millions of dollars to encourage reading book by people of all age groups. He generously contributed to universities, colleges and schools.
Patterson founded the James Patterson PageTurner Awards in 2005 and donated more than $100,000 to individuals, schools, universities and companies.
John Grisham
John Ray Grisham is popularly called as John Grisham. He was born on February 8, 1955, in Arkansas, United States. The American best selling writer is an activist, politician and attorney. He has many popular legal thrillers in his kitty. His books are popular all over the world, and they are translated into 42 languages. John Grisham married Renee Jones on May 8, 1981. They have two children, Shea and Ty.
John Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University, and he attended University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981. Grisham’s father worked as a construction worker and involved in cotton farming. Although Grisham’s parents lacked formal education, his parents encouraged him to continue higher education. His childhood experiences are converted into the novel through ‘A Painted House’.
He became Christian when he was eight years old and participated in missionary work in Brazil. As a teenager, he worked in a nursery. He practised law for a decade. His first book, ‘A Time to Kill’ was based on the real story of a girl he heard while practising in the court. He had to go through the great ordeal as the book was not published very easily. After unsuccessful attempts with 28 publishers, he managed to find a new publisher, Wynwood Press who offered to print 5000 copies. The book was published in 1989.
John Grisham’s second book, ‘The Firm’ became a great success, and it was the best seller on the ‘The New York Times’ list for 47 weeks. Grisham wrote many legal thrillers, and he got Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award presented by the Tulsa Library Trust. He wrote legal thrillers for children between 9 and 12 years. Grisham took 3 years to complete his first book, and he usually completes books in six months.
Danielle Steel
Danielle is a popular American novelist. She was born on August 14, 1947. More than 800 million copies of her books were sold successfully. She is the bestselling author alive, and she stands in the fourth place in all-time fiction categories. Most of her books focus on prison, blackmail, fraud and suicide. She wrote books on poetry and fiction meant for children. She raises funds for the treatment of medical disorders.
The full name of Danielle is Danielle Fernandes Dominique Schuelein-Steel. She was born in New York City, and she is the only child of her parents. Her father hails from Germany and mother from Portugal. She was born and brought up in an affluent family. After the divorce of her parents, she was raised by her father. Danielle started her writing career from her childhood. She wrote poetry in her teenage. She married French-American banker, Claude-Eric Lazard when she was 18. Steel continued her writing while attending the New York University. She completed her first manuscript at the age of 19.
She started her career at a public-relations agency. After nine years of marriage, she got divorced. She had one daughter, Beatrix. Her first novel, ‘Going Home’ was published in 1972. The novel focused on family issues and human relationships. Before her second divorce, she authored two novels, ‘Passion’s Promise’ and ‘Now and Forever’. Her books were found on the bestsellers list on New York Times for more than 381 weeks, and she was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Steel is a prolific writer, and she spends about two and half years in writing a book. She published many books in 2017 which include The Mistress, Dangerous Games, Against All Odds, The Duchess, The Right Time, Fairytale, and Past Perfect. Her upcoming titles in 2018 are Fall from Grace, Accidental Heroes, The Cast, and The Good Fight.
Stephenie Meyer
Stephenie Meyer was born on December 24, 1973, and she is in the 7th position of top authors list, in Connecticut, United States. She married Christian Meyer in 1994. They have three sons. She was influenced by the writings of William Shakespeare and Jane Austen. They have three children. Stephenie is popular for adult fiction content, and she is a successful film producer. She had authored Twilight novels which are popular throughout the world. They are sold more than 100 million copies. The copies are translated into 37 different languages.
Meyer completed her BA in English from Brigham Young University. Meyer aspired to attend law school. However, she devoted time to her first son and worked as a receptionist before taking up writing. Meyer had authored ‘Twilight’ based on her dream in 2003 and was able to transform her dream into a novel in three months. She had no thoughts of publishing her book as she wrote to fulfil her passion towards writing. She was persuaded by her sister to send the manuscript to publishers. The book was published in 2005, and it stood in the number 5 slot on The New York Times Best Seller List for Children’s Chapter Books. It reached the number one slot later. The book was published in 26 countries. Her book, Publishers Weekly became the best book of the year, and it became the Times Editor’s choice.
Stephenie Meyer was the bestselling author in 2008 and 2009 in the US. She sold more than 29 million books in 2008 and 26.5 million books in 2009. She was ranked No. 49 in the 100 most influential people in 2008 as per the Times Magazine. She was included in the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in 2009. Her annual earnings are more than $40 million per year. Her other books include New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide, and Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined. Meyer wrote ‘The Chemist’ in 2016. Her book on short stories, ‘Hell on Earth’ was published in 2009.
Nora Roberts
Nora Roberts was born on October 10, 1950, in Maryland, United States. She has authored more than 213 romance novels, and she is the bestselling American author. Her pen names are J.D. Robb, Jill March and Sarah Hardesty. Her books come under romance, fantasy and suspense category.
She was born in a family of avid readers. Even though she had many stories in her mind, she was confined to essays in the beginning. She was disciplined by nuns when she attended the Catholic school. Roberts met her first husband, Ronald Aufdem-Brinke at Montgomery Blair High School. Nora gave birth to two sons, Dan and Jason and divorced her first husband in 1983. She married Bruce Wilder in 1985 and came in contact with him when she hired to build bookshelves. Her husband operates the ‘Turn the Page Books’ bookstore. She wrote eight hours per day even though she is on vacation. After completing the first draft, she refines the content in the second and third draft before sending to the client. Nora Roberts writes trilogies, and she will finish three books in a row.
Nora Roberts started her writing in 1979, and her manuscripts were rejected most of the time. Some of her write-ups were copied by American writer, Janet Dailey. In 1980, she found a new publisher, Silhouette books. Silhouette books focused on manuscripts that were snubbed by Harlequin. Roberts was successful in publishing her first novel, Irish Thoroughbred in 1981 with the help of Silhouette books.
Nora Roberts started single title books for Bantam in 1987. She released paperback and hardcovers as well. Some of the books were adapted for the screen which includes Sanctuary, Carolina moon, midnight bayou, high noon, and tribute. Her books are presented on Lifetime Movie channel as well.
Dan Brown
Daniel Gerhard Brown was born on June 22, 1964. The American author of thriller fiction was born in New Hampshire, United States. He has a younger sister and brother. His father was a teacher of mathematics at Philips Exeter Academy. Daniel Brown wrote books from 1968. Some of his popular books are ‘Angels and Demons’, The Da Vinci Code, and Inferno. The thriller fiction series written by Brown comprises of keys, codes, symbols and conspiracy theories.
After graduating from Amherst, Brown pursued a career in music. Dan produced effects on synthesizer and the collection named SynthAnimals was sold for few dollars and formed a record company, Dalliance in 1990. He sold a few copies of the self-published CD, Perspective which targeted the adult market then married Blythe Newlon, the director of Academy’s Director of Artist Development. She is 12 years senior to him.
He was inspired to write books after reading ‘The Doomsday Conspiracy’ written by Sidney Sheldon. The stand-alone novels written by him are Digital Fortress and Deception Point. In the Robert Langdon series, he wrote Angels & Demons (2000), The Da Vinci code (2003), The Lost Symbol (2009), Inferno (2013) and Origin (2017).
In 2006, The Da Vinci Code written by Brown was released a film by Columbia Pictures. In 2009, Angels & Demons was released as a film. The other books such as ‘The Lost Symbol’ and ‘inferno’ were released as films. Imagine Entertainment planned a television series by Digital Fortress.
Most of the influential people in the history were authors. The pen has greater power than the sword, and it is the best way to share a person’s thoughts with the world. The authors presented above had great influence on the audience in their respective genres.
A Simplified Comparision table of Authors and Their Top Sold Books
