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Best Selling Authors of the Decade

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Cyanbane

Posted: Monday, December 28, 2009 10:01:45 AM

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Would have easily guessed #1, 3, 5 and 6.

Quoted from Bestselling authors of the decade

Quote:

Author Volume sold Value

1 J K Rowling 29,084,999 £225.9m

2 Roger Hargreaves 14,163,141 £26.6m

3 Dan Brown 13,372,007 £74.1m

4 Jacqueline Wilson 12,673,148 £69.9m

5 Terry Pratchett 10,455,397 £77.2m

6 John Grisham 9,862,998 £65.9m

7 Richard Parsons 9,561,776 £49.2m

8 Danielle Steel 9,119,149 £51m

9 James Patterson 8,172,647 £53.8m

10 Enid Blyton 7,910,758 £31.2m

11 Bill Bryson 7,409,656 £61.2m

12 Patricia Cornwell 7,355,180 £49.8m

13 Jamie Oliver 7,244,620 £89.5m

14 Daisy Meadows 7,149,788 £24.1m

15 Ian Rankin 6,848,039 £44.3m

16 Julia Donaldson 6,621,594 £33.7m

17 Alexander McCall Smith 6,609,779 £40.6m

18 Francesca Simon 6,564,681 £31.6m

19 Bernard Cornwell 6,297,911 £45.5m

20 Roald Dahl 6,169,406 £33.8m

21 Martina Cole 6,021,960 £41.7m

22 Philip Pullman 5,544,376 £35.8m

23 Stephenie Meyer 5,487,313 £32m

24 Maeve Binchy 5,476,134 £37.6m

25 J R R Tolkien 5,280,406 £50.6m

26 Delia Smith 5,269,783 £58.7m

27 Stephen King 5,268,577 £38m

28 Marian Keyes 5,029,363 £31.7m

29 Jeremy Clarkson 4,913,989 £35.1m

30 Josephine Cox 4,651,166 £24m

31 Sophie Kinsella 4,528,095 £27.7m

32 Jodi Picoult 4,514,620 £24.1m

33 Terry Deary 4,495,655 £21.6m

34 Anthony Horowitz 4,304,041 £23.6m

35 Lemony Snicket 4,220,508 £23.9m

36 Andy McNab 4,123,633 £30.4m

37 Ian McEwan 4,040,887 £27.7m

38 Wilbur Smith 3,871,484 £30.1m

39 Michael Connelly 3,785,330 £23.5m

40 Sebastian Faulks 3,782,665 £27.5m

41 Kathy Reichs 3,514,087 £22.2m

42 Helen Fielding 3,473,003 £22m

43 Cecelia Ahern 3,422,899 £19.5m

44 Joanne Harris 3,392,198 £21.2m

45 William Shakespeare 3,333,670 £17.8m

46 Carol Vorderman 3,315,641 £11.2m

47 Chris Ryan 3,289,855 £21m

48 Lee Child 3,274,928 £20.2m

49 Dave Pelzer 3,217,905 £20.2m

50 R L Stine 3,096,584 £13.1m

51 Catherine Cookson 3,020,751 £16.8m

52 Dean Koontz 3,010,242 £17.5m

53 W Awdry 2,991,572 £9.9m

54 Michael Morpurgo 2,989,161 £15.1m

55 Jeffery Deaver 2,972,145 £16.9m

56 Khaled Hosseini 2,957,026 £21.1m

57 Nick Hornby 2,956,544 £19.6m

58 Ben Elton 2,907,294 £20m

59 Katie Price 2,856,697 £21.8m

60 Jill Mansell 2,798,518 £14.2m

61 Mark Haddon 2,783,600 £16.8m

62 Lucy Daniels 2,768,332 £11.2m

63 Dr Seuss 2,760,156 £14.8m

64 Tess Gerritsen 2,745,556 £14.7m

65 Tony Parsons 2,731,436 £17.3m

66 Alan Titchmarsh 2,707,834 £27.5m

67 Harlan Coben 2,672,713 £15.1m

68 Lauren Child 2,632,369 £13.4m

69 Darren Shan 2,617,959 £14.4m

70 Nigella Lawson 2,616,955 £39.2m

71 Robert C Atkins 2,591,073 £17.3m

72 Philippa Gregory 2,577,235 £17.4m

73 Jane Green 2,498,100 £14.8m

74 Clive Cussler 2,435,718 £16.5m

75 Fiona Watt 2,431,376 £14.1m

76 Cathy Kelly 2,391,540 £13.2m

77 Penny Vincenzi 2,358,041 £14.6m

78 Charles Dickens 2,341,980 £9.3m

79 Eric Hill 2,334,612 £12.1m

80 Joanna Trollope 2,333,337 £14.5m

81 Meg Cabot 2,309,844 £12.1m

82 Jackie Collins 2,295,308 £14.4m

83 Lesley Pearse 2,261,007 £12.6m

84 A A Milne 2,255,346 £14.5m

85 Paulo Coelho 2,229,564 £16.3m

86 Eric Carle 2,225,336 £12.1m

87 Louis de Bernières 2,221,481 £15.3m

88 Jack Higgins 2,207,100 £12.4m

89 Anita Shreve 2,198,899 £13.4m

90 Karin Slaughter 2,196,031 £12.6m

91 Louise Rennison 2,172,395 £11.9m

92 Sheila O’Flanagan 2,162,811 £10.8m

93 Robert Harris 2,150,818 £16m

94 Paul McKenna 2,114,476 £16.6m

95 Alice Sebold 2,106,630 £13.2m

96 Gordon Ramsay 2,094,376 £23.4m

97 Roderick Hunt 2,077,092 £7.3m

98 Frank McCourt 2,055,939 £14.9m

99 Dav Pilkey 2,051,622 £9.4m

100 Lyn Andrews 2,027,382 £9.2m

Rotacidare

Posted: Monday, December 28, 2009 6:13:00 PM

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What's confusing is that Roger Hargreaves has been dead for over 20 years now. It sounds like most of the books attributed to him have been written by his son for many years.

wilhelm2451

Posted: Monday, December 28, 2009 8:35:42 PM

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Is that UK or worldwide sales? The article isn't clear and if I look up JKR I see that the Harry Potter series has sold over 400 million copies. Since most of the books came out this decade, I have to think the world wide number would be greater than 29 million.

Well, that was my first clue.

Then there was the complete domination of the list by UK authors. I own a lot of Bernard Cornwell's work, for example, but I don't think he is that popular world wide. Not that I begrudge them their sales, but I think a US compiled list might come out in a different order.

Cyanbane

Posted: Monday, December 28, 2009 8:45:37 PM

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The article mentions Neilsen. I tried to look up the reference list but came up empty, I did however find this:

Nielsen Book Ratings: More Holes Than Swiss Cheese!

which really calls the entire list into suspect...

rspyda

Posted: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 5:05:27 AM

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The list is definitly UK sales. At No.59 you have Katie Price who is an infamous 'glamour' model over here who everyone is very proud of, sort of a low budget Paris Hilton but with less morals.

Roger Hargreaves' books are little fun childrens stories based around a series of characters called the Mr Men. I don't know how well known they sold anywhere else in the world but they are always popular with pre-school age kids here so it would be no suprise to see them in a best sellers list every year.

Cyanbane

Posted: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 7:04:29 AM

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rspyda wrote:

sort of a low budget Paris Hilton but with less morals

So how does that work?

rspyda

Posted: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 6:21:25 PM

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Cyanbane wrote:

rspyda wrote:

sort of a low budget Paris Hilton but with less morals

So how does that work?

GOD only knows! Yet she seems to make money at every turn. It has even got to the point where three of her past or present boyfriends are being put in the house for the UK's next series of Celebrity Big Brother!

It would appear to be teenage girls who buy her books, thinking she is some kind of role model for how to achieve success. She is in good company though, many of the names around her in that list are chefs or celebrity gardeners. I just hope these sort of books are bought as presents and that people aren't choosing them for themselves over a 'proper' book. Especially having just looked at the list of fantasy books you have posted here today, there's so many of those I've yet to read and I only really read fantasy.

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