How to become a millionaire writer, the secret is finally out.
I know you’d like it, we’d all like it, if there was like a ‘krabby patty recipe’ but to get rich. Unfortunately we still don’t have the step-by-step manual but that doesn’t mean we are left to our own devices. In fact there are various ways to become a millionaire writer, and it has been done several times.
Today I present to you the list of the world’s richest writers. We will discover together the most important steps of their literary careers, to understand how they became successful and whether it is possible to recreate it.
Each author has his or her own life and reasons for having embarked on such a career, yet none of them hints at having regretted it.
Here is the list of
Authors who have become millionaires (and billionaires) through writing
- Stephenie Meyer’s net worth is approximately $125 million
- Jeffrey Archer is an English author and politician who has a net worth of $200 million
- Barbara Taylor Bradford’s net worth is estimated to be $300 million
- Nora Roberts net worth is approximately $390 million
- James Patterson’s net worth is roughly $800 Million
- As of March 2023, J.K. Rowling’s net worth is estimated to be $1 Billion.
- Elisabeth Badinter’s net worth is approximately $1.3 Billion
How did they do it?
Stephenie Meyer
We begin with a writer whose fame still turns many noses up at her.
Although some criticise the writing of the Twilight saga, there is no denying that it was a gigantic success, both as a book and as a film.
The idea for the first book came to her in a dream and the writer immediately set to work and finished it after three months, but she had no intention of publishing it.
In fact, it was her sister, enthusiastic after reading it, who convinced her to send the manuscript to various agencies.
This was certainly a great fortune for the young author, in fact, as we all know, the world of twilight has expanded to the point of selling more than 100 million copies and being translated into 37 languages.
Meyer’s wealth comes not only from her writing but also from the success the story has had on the big screen. To this day, she continues to write, and given her young age, she may return with another story that will still captivate her loyal readers.
Jeffrey Archer
This author does not have the reputation of being a good man, he has defrauded many people and been the subject of many scandals, but this post is not about the personal lives of writers, so let us concentrate on his literary career.
After putting his political career on hold Jeffrey found himself almost penniless because of the much money he lost. He saw a literary career as his only option, so he started writing.
His first best-seller was ‘Kane and Abel’, which alone sold more than 34 million copies. His favourite genre is usually the thriller and even today, at 82 years of age, he continues to produce new stories.
Many of his books have been reproduced in mini-series or on the radio.
In all, he has sold more than 320 million copies worldwide and has managed to financially support not only himself, but his whole family through writing.
Barbara Taylor Bradford
Barbara read the classic novels of the great writers from an early age. She decided to become a writer at the age of 10 and sent her story to a magazine and was even paid a token sum of seven 7s 6d.
She tried as an adult to write four suspense novels but quickly tired of them and abandoned the project.
Years later, however, she thought about her desire to write and admitted:
‘I was in my late thirties. I thought: what if I get to 55, and I’ve never written a novel? I’m going to hate myself. I’m going to be one of those bitter, unfulfilled writers.’
And it was this very thought that set her pen to the paper. She immediately wrote the novella ‘A Woman of Substance’, which was the first of 38 other best-sellers.
Today, the writer finds herself a millionaire thanks to 92 million copies sold worldwide, translated into more than 40 languages.
Related article: Successful writers and their daily writing routine – It paid off
Nora Roberts
Nora Roberts is up against the next author we are going to talk about.
In fact, she has sold more than 1 million ebooks and her books have been an instant success.
She started writing during a blizzard, didn’t know what to do at home and decided to make something up. She had grown up surrounded by avid readers but had never picked up a pen of her own.
From that moment on, however, she realised that writing came naturally to her and so she never stopped doing it.
She does not like working with new characters all the time, so she writes many trilogies and concentrates on novels.
Her career began with ‘Irish Thoroughbred’ but the list of writings quickly thickened. In fact, the author has written more than 220 novels and publishes about five a year.
Her books have been on the New york times bestseller list countless times and have been at the number one spot for at least 170 weeks. Nora Roberts earns about $30 Million Per Year through the sale of her books alone.
James Patterson
Before he started writing books, James Patterson worked as a copywriter in an advertising agency and was also quite good at it.
His first book was ‘The Thomas Berryman Number’ but the one that started his great literary career was ‘Along Came a Spider’.
To this day, Patterson is the richest writer in America, but that is not even the most surprising thing.
Many writers owe their wealth to film or TV series deals, he on the other hand has earned his millions from book sales alone.
In fact, to date, his books have sold more than 425 million copies worldwide and many works have become best sellers in a short time.
He also holds the record for having written more New York Times bestsellers than any other writer and is the first person to have sold 1 million e-books in history
“In 2016, Patterson topped Forbes’s list of highest-paid authors for the third consecutive year, with an income of $95 million. His total income over a decade is estimated at $700 million.”
J.K. Rowling
Joanne Rowling, the first writer in the world to become a billionaire just by writing books. In recent years, a storm has erupted over her controversial views on the web, but now we will not talk about her person but focus on her literary career.
She does not need much introduction, both young and old recognise her as the writer of the great ‘Harry Potter’, the fantasy series that conquered the world in a decade.
The idea for this story came to Rowling on a delayed train from Manchester to London.
However, the first book was published seven years later, and in the meantime Rowling had lost her mother, had a child, divorced and found herself on the brink of poverty. She no longer felt like living, in fact it was her writing that saved her life.
The first book quickly won many hearts and while Rowling was busy writing the rest of the story, Harry Potter was already being transported from paper to the big screen. In 2008, after the series was completed, Rowling was named the world’s highest-paid author.
The series has sold over 500 million copies and has been translated into 84 languages. Even today, the author still earns money from her magical world, in fact new gadgets and a dedicated video game have recently been released.
Although she certainly does not need to, she still continues to write novels for both adults and children, sometimes using a pseudonym.
Related article: How to attract readers – Brilliant Incipits in famous books
Élisabeth Bleustein-Blanchet
Despite being born in years deeply marked by sexism she had the opportunity to study, thanks to her two feminist parents.
Her career was marked by her teenage reading; in fact, reading Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘The Second Sex‘ convinced her to graduate in philosophy.
After her studies, she became a teacher and began writing her first books. Many were based on the equality of the sexes and the sense of identity in the society of the time, the most important being ‘L’Amour en plus’ and ‘L’un est l’autre’.
Élisabeth Bleustein-Blanchet did not owe her wealth only to her writings, for although they earned her millions, they were not her only source of income.
In fact, she inherited 19 million shares in advertising and public relations giant Publicis Groupe from her father’s business.
Despite her enormous wealth, she has continued to be a philosophy teacher and has published many controversial books that have, even recently, opened debates throughout Europe.
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The list is over and now we certainly know a little more about these much-loved writers. As you can see, three common points can be extracted from all these stories:
- the writers wrote something innovative, which had never been treated that way before
- the writers wrote something provocative, they shook society and made it question its security
- the writers were inspired by their own lives. In fact, especially an inexperienced writer has no other weapon than his own experiences
Many of these writers were born in times when there were not as many books and writers as there are today, so this also helped their careers.
But even in our present, every day there are new best-sellers and writers winning hearts around the world, so time will certainly not stop you.
Run off and write your book and become what you have always wanted to be.
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