'Twilight' Author Makes $40 Million Without Writing a Single Book

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed)
Aug 23rd 2010 at 9:01PM

Despite not having written a single book in the past year, Twilight author Stephenie Meyer raked in an eye-popping $40 million from her sexy vampire tales, Forbes reports. Meyer landed the second place spot on the magazine's new ranking of the world's highest paid authors, easily eclipsing Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling. About $7 million of Meyer's 2009 windfall came from movies adapted from the Twilight series, with most of the balance attributable to previously published works. In June the third Twilight adaptation made $175 million in its first six days. Meyer still has a long way to go to catch up with the world's highest paid author, James Patterson, who snagged the #1 spot with a whopping $70 million paycheck. Unlike Meyer however, Patterson has to keep churning out thrillers; he's contracted to produce another 17 books by the end of 2012. Stephen King placed third on the list with $34 million, while Rowling languishes in last place with a measly $10 million. Of course she's already a billionaire.

Tags: authors, books, Forbes, J.K. Rowling, James Patterson, Stephen King, Twilight, vampires, wealth

Filed under: Books, Wealth

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Cheril N. Clarke Aug 24th 2010 8:37AM

Wonderful! Not many author earn that kind of income for their work. She may be content with her earnings and not feel the need to "catch up" with anyone else. Just a thought.