Weird Facts About Best-Selling Authors

Top earner JK Rowling made $300 million off Potter franchise in past year

(NEWSER) - So you think people don't read books anymore? Tell that to JK Rowling, No. 1 on Forbes' list of top-earning authors. The woman behind the Harry Potter juggernaut raked in $300 million in the past year, thanks in part to the movies based on her books—which have sold 375 million copies worldwide. The prolific James Patterson came in second, with $50 million. More»

(NEWSER) - The follow-up to Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code should finally see the light of day later this year, the New York Observer reports. Publisher Doubleday says The Lost Symbol will hit shelves Sept.15, 4 years after originally hoped. The first print run will be 5 million copies, the publisher’s largest ever. “This is one of the most anticipated publications in recent history, and it was well worth the wait,” said a Doubleday exec. More»

Giant of Latin American literature's oeuvre is complete

(NEWSER) - The world has probably already seen the complete work of Gabriel García Márquez, the Guardian reports. Friend and fellow author Plinion Apuleyo Mendoza said last year that the creator of magical realism was working on a new novel, but his agent recently quashed that rumor. "I don't think that García Márquez will write anything else," Carmen Balcells said. More»

(NEWSER) - David Foster Wallace declared war on depression and addiction in writing his last, unfinished novel, D. T. Max writes in the New Yorker. The writer's suicide by hanging last year was the culmination of a struggle to live normally, to achieve what he called “adult sanity," without antidepressants or the labyrinthine writing style he had developed in Infinite Jest. His last testament to that struggle, The Pale King, will be published next year. More»

Author nears deal to offer 22 bestsellers for Kindle, other readers

(NEWSER) - One of publishing's last major holdouts has decided it's time to kill his opposition to e-books, reports the Wall Street Journal. John Grisham is close to finalizing a deal that would make all of his 22 bestsellers—including new legal thriller The Associate—available for Amazon's Kindle reader and all other e-book formats. More»