JK Rowling will need to reserve a particularly large vault at Gringotts bank after a bumper year for the Harry Potter novelist magicked her back to the No 1 spot on Forbes’ list of the world’s richest authors, almost a decade after she last topped it.
Forbes – which uses a mix of print, ebook and audio sales data, television and film earnings and expert industry opinion to come up with its list – estimates that Rowling earned $95m in the year to 31 May. This figure is the equivalent of more than $180 per minute, thanks to the sensational sales of her play script, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. When the Harry Potter follow-up was released last summer, it sold more than 680,000 print copies in the UK in the first three days alone, and became the fastest selling book since the final Harry Potter novel.
Rowling’s earnings have been boosted with the release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a film set in the Harry Potter world for which she wrote the script, which was published in November. Her original publisher, Bloomsbury, has also been releasing illustrated versions of the Potter novels, to mark 20 years since the publication of the first in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Forbes producer Hayley Cuccinello admitted she was surprised to see Rowling’s earnings increase $76m over 12 months, attributing the surge to recent successes from the Harry Potter franchise on stage and screen. “But unless Rowling releases another bestselling book in time for next year’s list,” said Cuccinello, “her earnings will almost certainly dip dramatically and she’ll likely relinquish first place.”
Rowling, who last topped Forbes’ list in 2008, comes in this year $8m ahead of second-placed James Patterson, the thriller powerhouse who has headed the list for the last three years.
Both Rowling and Patterson are considerably larger earners than the third-placed writer, Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney, who Forbes says earned $21m over the last year. Dan Brown comes in fourth, according to Forbes, with earnings of $20m. His earnings “doubled in a year due to an estimated eight-figure advance for his upcoming book”, said Forbes, referring to the forthcoming new Robert Langdon thriller, which Brown will publish next month.
Three British authors feature on a list otherwise comprised of American writers, with Rowling joined by The Girl on the Train novelist Paula Hawkins, in eighth position with earnings of $13m. Last year Hawkins entered the Forbes chart for the first time, after her psychological thriller took the book charts by storm. The third Brit to feature in the list is Fifty Shades of Grey novelist EL James, who, according to Forbes, made $11.5m last year.
“Our celebrity lists tend to have a substantial percentage of international stars,” Cuccinello said, “but it is remarkable that nearly a third of the highest-paid authors hail from the UK. That said, I think it’s more noteworthy that nearly half of the list members are women.”
Horror superstar Stephen King comes in fifth place, legal supremo John Grisham and romantic suspense bestseller Nora Roberts in sixth, with romance author Danielle Steel and children’s writer Rick Riordan tying for 10th place.
George RR Martin, John Green and Veronica Roth, all of whom previously featured in the top 10, drop out this year – although Martin will likely shoulder his way back in again as soon as his new Game of Thrones novel hits the shelves … whenever that might be.
Forbes did not reveal earnings for Martin over the last year. “We don’t rank authors who don’t meet our earnings threshold, which was $10m for this year’s list,” said Cuccinello. “He was close, but no cigar.”
The 2017 Forbes list of the world’s highest-paid authors
1 JK Rowling (UK) – $95m
2 James Patterson (US) $87m
3 Jeff Kinney (US) $21m
4 Dan Brown (US) $20m
5 Stephen King (US) $15m
6= John Grisham (US) $14m
6= Nora Roberts (US) $14m
8 Paula Hawkins (UK) $13m
9 EL James (UK) $11.5m
10= Danielle Steel (US) $11m
10= Rick Riordan (US) $11m
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