World’s Highest-Paid Authors 2019: J.K. Rowling Back On Top With $92 Million
Hayley C. Cuccinello
The winner of
six Tonys clocked $2.3 million in ticket sales in a single week, the
most of any nonmusical play in Broadway history. Add 2.8 million print
units sold in the U.S. across her empire—a down year for Rowling—as well
as eight-figure sums from theme parks and a new film about The Boy Who
Lived, and she reigns supreme again on our ranking of the highest-paid
authors, with an estimated $92 million pretax.*
Next on the list is last year’s front-runner, James Patterson, who follows Rowling with $70 million, selling 5.5 million domestic print units in 12 months, according to NPD BookScan. The President Is Missing, which Patterson co-wrote with Bill Clinton, was the bestselling adult fiction novel of 2018. He is still America’s richest author, his net worth estimated at $800 million last year.
*
Former First Lady Michelle Obama rounds out the top three, earning an estimated $36 million.
She and her husband, former
president Barack Obama, received a reported $65 million joint-advance
for two books in 2017, an unprecedented sum for a presidential memoir.
Although Barack Obama’s book has yet to be published—rumor has it that
the tome could arrive during the 2020 presidential race—the success of
Michelle Obama’s shows the sky-high advance may be worth it for
publisher Penguin Random House. Her memoir, Becoming, sold more
than 10 million copies across formats during our timeframe and was the
bestselling book of 2018 despite being released less than two months
before the end of the year. Obama padded her paycheck with ticket sales
from her ten-city book tour, selling out arenas more like a rock star
than an author.*
“At a certain age, you realize you have a chance to make the world you live in,” Kinney told Forbes in 2016. “My advice would be to embrace that idea early on and forge your path forward.”
Stephen King slid from third to fifth place with earnings of $17 million, a $10 million drop from last year, when he collected an eight-figure paycheck from the blockbuster It movie adaptation. His latest flick, Doctor Sleep, grossed a disappointing $71 million worldwide. The king of horror moved 2.1 million domestic print units in our scoring period.
We close the covers—for now, at least—on Dan Brown and John Grisham, who made the ranks of the top five in 2018 but were pushed out this year. Brown, the scribe behind The Da Vinci Code, previously tied with Kinney at $18.5 million for fifth place, and Grisham, the legal thriller author, had ranked fourth with $21 million.
As for Rowling, look for her reign to continue. She served as the screenwriter for the tenth “Wizarding World” movie, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, which grossed $650 million at the worldwide box office. There’s another on the way—the next Fantastic Beasts movie is slated for 2021—and, with it, a cauldron full of cash.
Methodology
All earnings estimates are from June 1, 2018, through June 1, 2019. Figures are pretax; fees for agents, managers and lawyers are not deducted. Earnings estimates are based on data from NPD BookScan, Box Office Mojo and Pollstar Pro as well as interviews with industry insiders, including some of the authors themselves.The World’s Highest-Paid Authors of 2019
The king of horror’s earnings dropped by $10 million from last year, when he collected an eight-figure paycheck from the blockbuster It movie adaptation.
4. Jeff Kinney ($20 million)
The author of the beloved Diary of a Wimpy Kid children’s series sold 3.6 million domestic units in 12 months.
3. Michelle Obama ($36 million)
The former First Lady is the only newcomer to this year’s author rankings. Her memoir, Becoming, sold more than 10 million copies across formats during our timeframe.
2. James Patterson ($70 million)
America’s richest author sold more than 5.5 million domestic units during our scoring period. The President Is Missing, which Patterson co-wrote with Bill Clinton, was the bestselling adult fiction novel of 2018.
1. J.K. Rowling ($92 million)
Book sales no longer account for the lion’s share of the Harry Potter scribe’s earnings. Rowling collected eight-figure sums from theme parks, theatrical productions and a new film about The Boy Who Lived.
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