J.K. Rowling climbs list of world’s highest-paid authors

Sans the epic sales of the “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” script book, British novelist J.K. Rowling managed to ascend to the third spot of Forbes’ latest list of the world’s highest-paid authors.

Leaping from her seventh spot in the previous ranking, Rowling raked in US$19 million (AU$24.8 million) pretax income between June 2015 to June 2016. If only the latest “Harry Potter” book was published ahead of its July 31st release, Rowling would not have registered a flat income growth since 2015. To recall, Scholastic sold two million copies of the “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two” special edition script book during the first two days of its publication.

While Rowling's rank rose in the 2016 Forbes' List of World's Highest-Paid Authors, “Alex Cross” mastermind James Patterson has kept the top spot for third year in a row with a staggering US$95 million (AU$124 million) pretax earnings during the scoring period. Patterson, together with his pool of co-writers, increased his income from US$89 million (AU$116 million) in 2015.

“Diary of a Whimpy Kid” author Jeff Kinney also climbed up the list and managed to land on the second top spot with a distant US$19.5 million (AU$25.5 million) pretax earning. In 2015, he was ranked fifth after he managed to earn US$23 million (AU$30 million).

Crime novelist John Grisham closely followed Rowling in the ranking with US$18 million (AU$23.5 million), while Stephen King, Danielle Steel and Nora Roberts were tied on the fifth rank with their respective US$15 million (AU$19.6 million) pretax earnings.

“Fifty Shades of Grey” writer E.L. James claimed the eighth spot on the recent Forbes list with US$14 million (AU$18.3 million), mainly due to her handsome share in the earnings of the 2015 movie adaptation of her erotica novel.

The youngest in the Forbes’ list of top-grossing writers, Veronica Roth shared the ninth ranking with John Green and Paula Hawkins for garnering US$10 million (AU$13 million) pretax earning during the scoring period. Roth, 27, slid from her top 2 spot in 2015 when she gained US$25 million (AU$32.7 million).

Despite taking so much time to finish the highly anticipated “A Song of Ice and Fire,” “Game of Thrones” scribe George R.R. Martin managed to cling to the cream of the crop. With US$9.5 million (AU$12.4 million) pretax earnings from June 2015 to June 2016, Martin shared the twelfth spot with fellow authors Dan Brown and Rick Riordan.

According to Forbes magazine, television and movie adaptation often help drive book sales.

“Earnings are compiled by examining print, ebook and audiobook sales from Nielsen BookScan figures, considering TV and movie income and talking to authors, agents, publishers and other experts,” the leading financial publication said.