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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.

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Near-misses include kids’ favourite Rachel Renée Russell (Dork Diaries) and The Martian scribe Andy Weir. Images: Patterson : Danny Moloshok / Reuters Grisham:Getty Images James: Shutterstock.Com Hawkins: Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty

First Published: Sep 09, 2016, 07:56

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