James Patterson tops list of world's highest-paid authors

These well-heeled wordsmiths earned a combined $269 million over the last 12 months, proving that the written word isn’t dead—although television and movie adaptations often help drive sales. To wit: Game of Thrones creator George RR Martin benefited from the hit HBO series based on his fantasy novels, while Zoo, a thriller from James Patterson, scored a second season on CBS. Patterson topped our list for the third straight year, earning $95 million, while children’s author Jeff Kinney (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) placed a distant second, earning $19.5 million.

Near-misses include kids’ favourite Rachel Renée Russell (Dork Diaries) and The Martian scribe Andy Weir.