Who says reading is dead? There are more mega-bestselling authors than ever, with sales in the hundreds of millions
This is the age of writers like James Patterson, Dan Brown and Stephenie Meyer, whose sales number more than 100 million – and of J.K Rowling, Stephen King and Paulo Coelho, who have sold more than 350 million books. But what makes a mega-selling author?
Reading, contrary to previous reports, is not dead. In fact, it’s very much alive.
Brazilian author Paulo Coelho has legions of readers. His best-known book, The Alchemist, the story of a young Andalusian shepherd on a personal quest, spent almost eight years on the bestseller lists. It was translated into 81 languages.
But The Alchemist is only one of Coelho’s more than 30 works. The Spy came out in November. All told, the writer has sold an estimated 350 million books – those dead-tree objects that people were supposed to have long ago abandoned for screens.
Books like John Grisham’s The Whistler, now topping bestseller lists, and King’s End of Watch were no doubt stacked under numerous Christmas treesthis year, or paperbacks of the writers’ earlier works stuffed in stockings.
There are bestselling authors, and then there are mega-bestselling authors – writers who have sold 100 million copies or more. Writers like Ken Follett, Nora Roberts, James Patterson and Stephenie Meyer. And there may be more of them now than ever.