Forbes, Highest Paid Authors

Forbes has ranked the the highest-paid authors. The top 10 are:
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1. James Patterson
2. Stephenie Meyer
3. Stephen King
4. Danielle Steele
5. Ken Follett
6. Dean Koontz
7. Janet Evanovich
8. John Grisham
9. Nicholas Sparks
10. J.K. Rowling
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Some of my favorite authors are there. King, Follett, Grisham. Must admit that Nicholas Sparks is a surprise. I haven't read him -- but I can't stay awake during movies based on his books.
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Of course, publications like The Atlantic framed the story as: "'Twilight' Author Made More Money Than Stephen King, Danielle Steele, J.K. Rowling." Humm, I guess that proves... nothing!
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Here's what Forbes had to say about King:
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The bad climate for brick and mortar bookselling hasn't hurt prolific horror maven Stephen King, either, who placed third on our list with a take of $34 million, $8 million of which we estimate came from backlist sales. His 51st novel, Under the Dome, was released in November, selling 600,000 copies, according to Nielsen BookScan. It was optioned by DreamWorks TV.
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King is prolific, and not just in books: A recent profile noted that over the course of a few weeks this year he had a story published in the New Yorker, a review of a Raymond Carver biography in the New York Review of Books, an article in the horror magazine Fangoria and a poem in Playboy.
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http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/19/patterson-meyer-king-business-media-highest-paid-authors.html