It was yet another magical year for Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling, who once again topped Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s highest-paid authors.
Rowling, the fantasy author and controversy magnet, raked in $92 million in 2019, the magazine reports, thanks in part to the success of the Broadway play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. (If you believe the currency exchange that one Reddit user has come up with, $92 million is about 3.7 million galleons, enough to buy several rounds of butterbeers, even at one of those overpriced hipster bars with names like “Rust + Lark.”)
Coming in at No. 2 on the list is James Patterson, the thriller author and philanthropist, who earned an estimated $70 million. Patterson, who has written about 150 books in the past 43 years, is America’s richest author, Forbes said.
The third highest-earning author of 2019 was Michelle Obama, the former first lady whose memoir Becoming was a runaway hit in 2018. The book and its companion journal are still selling well; Obama earned an estimated $36 million this year.
At No. 4 is Jeff Kinney, whose Diary of a Wimpy Kid books brought in $20 million for the author this year. Kinney could use the money to buy some kind of vacation home in France, where he was recently inducted into the fancy-sounding Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Rounding out the list is Stephen King, the cause of a good percentage of your nightmares, who earned a paltry $17 million in 2019, $10 million less than he scored in 2018. If he sets up a GoFundMe to help with his bills, we’ll be sure to let you know.
Michael Schaub is an Austin, Texas–based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
