Saturday, May 12, 2007

Rich List

We all know who the UK's richest writer is - Joanne Rowling, worth a cool £545m.

But would you like to lay bets as to which other authors top the list according to a survey conducted by the Times? And then there was, of course, that Forbes piece about top-earning authors last year which gives a more transatlantic perspective ...

4 comments:

Greenbottle said...

not unexpected this...just look at any week's top ten bestsellers even in the most respected papers inc the guardian, nyt or london times...it's the same thing...as in movies (we gobble silly holywood fares) or food (we guzzle coca colas, pigged on mcdonnald) in music (we listen to the like of bloody eminem etc) so it follows that in books we should read harry potter and dan browns...

it's a classic bell curve thing.95% of people couldn't give a damn about what critics say...they just want simple life and simple things amuse them...but What interest me though are the 'outlayers'...those 2.5% on the right...
so any of you who want to be successors of charles bukowski or vonnegut...keep on writing even if you only sell ten copies...

Amir Muhammad said...

I wonder if Malaysia's richest writer, judged solely from book sales, is Ahadiat Akashah. Or would it be someone like Pak Habib @ SH Alattas?

bibliobibuli said...

greenbottle - good advice!

amir - tash aw would take some beating! but i wonder too about the v. popular writers in malay ...

Anonymous said...

Well she just earned the title of being the world's biggest money sucker for kids. Harry Potter says it all.