Forbes: Top 5 Children’s Authors Took in $73.6M Last Year
Five children’s book authors pulled in $73.6 million last year, according to Forbes–including $17 million for works by the late Theodor Seuss Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss.
In Kids Incorporated: The Top-Selling Children’s Authors 2016, the top five authors are identified as:
- Jeff Kinney, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series: $19.5 million
- J.K. Rowling, “Harry Potter” series: $19 million
- Dr. Seuss, “There’s a Wocket in My Pocket!” and all other Seuss titles: $17 million
- Rick Riordan, “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series: $9.5 million
- Rachel Renee Russell, “Dork Diaries” series: $8.5 million
Forbes’ writer Natalie Robehmed explained how the rankings—which are based on the period from June 2015 to June 2016—were arrived at: “estimates are compiled by looking at print, ebook, and audiobook sales from Nielsen BookScan figures, considering TV and movie earnings and talking to authors, agents, publishers and other experts.” Earnings are pre-tax and other fees are not deducted.
The full list of top-earning authors across all categories will be published later this month, the publication said.
Books by all the top-5 authors are in schools around the country. In 2000, Donalyn Miller—who at the time blogged for Education Week as The Book Whisperer—wrote that her 92 sixth grade students read 5,240 books that school year. Kinney, Rowling and Riordan appeared on her students’ list of favorite authors.
You can follow new releases and trends in K-12 education-publishing by following Education Week’s BookMarks blog.