Due to the Forbes magazine, James Patterson was declared world's best-paid author. No wonder he had become the world’s best-selling author, financially at least, with sales of $US84 million. Twenty per cent up year on year, he reflected with satisfaction. More than Dickens. Better than Austen. Much better than Danielle Steel, whose works only brought in $US35 million.
Or Stephen King, who once called Patterson’s thrillers dopey and said he was a terrible writer. King’s books only made $US28 million.
Janet Evanovich earned $US22 million with her Stephanie Plum mysteries and Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight vampire novels, made $US21 million - only half of the previous year’s total, but then she only published one novella last year.