One Horror Author Just Made the List of Top 5 Bestselling Scribes in the Nation (Can You Guess Which One?)

In a world filled with writers to the brim, being in a TOP 5 is quite the achievement. The truth is a lot of the listings already here won't surprise you, but what might surprise you is one horror author has hit the big time (to be fair, he hit the big time multiple times already in his storied career).

Here Are the Top 5 Authors of 2019

The first one should be a no-brainer, honestly....

#1: J.K. Rowling

Surprised? No. Believe it or not, her cash-in for this year of a sick $92MM doesn't simply come from book sales. In fact, the lion's share came in droves from theme parks, theatrical productions.... And a new film about that scarred boy who brought her the big dough in the first place (a new film? Yep.).

#2: James Patterson

Here's what's remarkable about this one: we all know James Patterson was a household name, but when you pair it with the likes of.... Bill Clinton, that's a winner. In fact, the recent book THE PRESIDENT IS MISSING, co-written by the former POTUS, happened to be the best-selling fiction novel of 2018. At a healthy $70MM for this year, Patterson still goes strong having sold 5.5MM copies of his books.

#3: Michelle Obama

This might be surprising as you wouldn't necessarily peg the former FLOTUS for being a bestselling author. But here she is with her memoir BECOMING raking in $36MM and more than 10MM copies sold. She's also a newcomer to the top 5.

#4: Jeff Kinney

A children's book author?? Let's be fair, though: DIARY OF A WIMPY KID is hardly a children's book, but more of middle grade young adult fare. His books still sell extremely well, even today, which is why Mr. Kinney still dominates that sub-genre at a remarkable $20MM in revenue.

Ready Yourself for the Applause, and This Shouldn't Be Any Kind of Surprise for You

Arguably the most genre-specific and audience-heavy author of our time, it really isn't any surprise that the one and only STEPHEN KING should be on this list. He sits at the #5 slot, very comfortably we might add.

At revenues of $17MM, you'd think he'd be a bit more, but the fact is this: King does not have a theme park (like Rowling, thank God), he's not a former FLOTUS (thank God), he certainly hasn't co-written a book with another former politician, and he doesn't pump out cool children's books (although he could). The majority of his revenue, in fact, came from a blow-out debut of the blockbuster IT film adaptation. No surprise there.

It was an 8-figure paycheck, in fact. Yep. And guess what: the master of horror has more adaptations coming as we speak. So congratulations are certainly in order.

To Be Fair, the Top 5 May Be the Sickest, Because Even Just a Healthy Million Would Be Gravy to Any Author

Or any professional of any trade. So there's your list of mega-selling, money-making and dollar-burning authors. And, yes, horror's up there with the best of them, thanks to Stephen King.