Michael Wolff Makes Forbes 2018 List of World's Highest Paid Authors

Posted on December 16, 2018

Forbes has announced its annual list of the world's highest paid authors for 2018. The prolific James Patterson easily topped the list with earnings of $86 million. He was followed by J.K. Rowling with earnings of $54 million.

J.K. Rowling was followed by Stephen King, who earned $27 million, and John Grisham, who earned $21 million. Children's author Jeff Kinney and thriller writer Dan Brown tied for fifth with earnings of $18.5 million each.

The authors on the list pen the fiction read by the reading masses in mystery, romance, fantasy, thriller and horror. Michael Wolff is the oddball on the 2018 Forbes list. He is also the only nonfiction writer on the list although President Trump would probably argue that Wolff's work is fiction. Wolff's position on the at No. 7 list is thanks to his Trump tell-all book, Fire and Fury.

Forbes says that book helped Wolff to earnings of $13 million. The book sold 1.7 million copies in its first three weeks of release. It was rushed into bookstores by publisher Henry Holt after a legal threat from Trump.

Wolff was followed by Danielle Steel, Nora Roberts, Rick Riordan and E.L. James.