Best selling authors of all times

Sorted by sales (minimum 100 million)

Who	When	Language	Genre	Title / Character	Books	Country
Shakespeare	1582–1616	English	Dramaturgy			UK
Agatha Christie	1890-1976	English	Mystery	Hercule Poirot	85	UK
Barbara Cartland	1901-2000	English	Romance		723	UK
Danielle Steel	1947-	English	Romance		120	USA
Harold Robbins	1916-1997	English	Adventure		23	USA
Georges Simenon	1903-1989	French	Mystery	Commissaire Maigret	570	Belgium
Sidney Sheldon	1907-2007	English	Modern novel	The Other Side of Midnight	21	USA
Enid Blyton	1897-1968	English	Children's literature		800	UK
Dr. Seuss	1904-1991	English	Children's literature	Horton Hears a Who!	44	USA
Gilbert Patten	1866-1945	English	Dime novels		209	USA
J. K. Rowling	1951-	English	Fantasy	Harry Potter	11	UK
Leo Tolstoy	1828-1910	Russian	Classic novel	War and Peace, Anna Karenina	48	Russia
Corín Tellado	1927-2009	Spanish	Romance		4,000	Spain
Jackie Collins	1937-2015	English	Romance		25	UK
Horatio Alger, Jr.	1832-1899	English	Dime novels		135	USA
R. L. Stine	1943-	English	Horror, Fantasy		430+	USA
Dean Koontz	1945-	English	Horror, Fantasy		91	USA
Nora Roberts	1950-	English	Romance		200+	USA
Alexander Pushkin	1799-1837	Russian	Poetry, Classic Novel	Eugene Onegin	17	Russia
Stephen King	1947-	English	Horror, Fantasy	The Shining	70	USA
Louis L'Amour	1908-1988	English	Western		101	USA
Erle Stanley Gardner	1889-1970	English	Mystery	Perry Mason	140	USA
Jin Yong	1924-	Chinese	Wuxia (Fantasy)		15	Hong Kong
Jirō Akagawa	1948-	Japanese	Mystery		500+	Japan
Janet Dailey	1944-2013	English	Romance		93	USA
Edgar Wallace	1875-1932	English	Mystery	King Kong	175	UK
Robert Ludlum	1927-2001	English	Spy stories	Jason Bourne	40	USA
James Patterson	1947-	English	Thriller	Alex Cross	98	USA
Frédéric Dard	1924-2000	French	Mystery		300	Switzerland
Jeffrey Archer	1940-	English	Mystery	The sins of the father	30	UK
Stan and Jan Berenstain	1923-2005	English	Children's literature	Berenstain Bears	300+	USA
John Grisham	1955-	English	Legal thriller	The Firm	22	USA
Zane Grey	1872-1939	English	Western			USA
Irving Wallace	1916-1990	English	Modern novel			USA
J. R. R. Tolkien	1892-1973	English	Fantasy	The Lord of the Rings	36	UK
Karl May	1842-1912	German	Western, Adventure		80	Germany
Mickey Spillane	1918-2006	English	Mystery	Mike Hammer		USA
C. S. Lewis	1898-1963	English	Fantasy	The Chronicles of Narnia	38	UK
Kyotaro Nishimura	1930-	Japanese	Mystery		400+	Japan
Dan Brown	1964-	English	Thriller, Adventure	The Da Vinci Code	6	USA
Ann M. Martin	1955-	English	Children's litterature	The Baby-sitters Club	335	USA
Ryōtarō Shiba	1923-1996	Japanese	Historical novel		350	Japan
Arthur Hailey	1920-2004	English	Modern novel	Airport	11	UK/Canada
Gérard de Villiers	1929-2013	French	Spy stories	SAS	170	French
Beatrix Potter	1866-1943	English	Children's literature	The Tale of Peter Rabbit	23	UK
Michael Crichton	1942-2008	English	Techno thriller	Jurassic Park	25	USA
Richard Scarry	1919-1994	English	Children's books	Best Word Book Ever	250	USA
Clive Cussler	1931-	English	Adventure	Sahara	37	USA
Alistair MacLean	1922-1987	English	Adventure	The Guns of Navarone	32	UK
Ken Follett	1949-	English	Spy stories	Eye of the Needle	30	UK
Astrid Lindgren	1902-2002	Swedish	Children's books	Pippi Longstocking	100	Sweden
Debbie Macomber	1948-	English	Romance			USA
Paulo Coelho	1947-	Portuguese	Fantasy	The Alchemist		Brazil
E.L. James	1963-	English	Romance, Erotica	Fifty Shades of Grey	3	UK
Eiji Yoshikawa	1892-1962	Japanese	Historical novel	Musashi	7	Japan
Catherine Cookson	1906-1998	English	Romance		103	UK
Stephenie Meyer	1973-	English	Fantasy	The Twilight Saga	6	USA
Norman Bridwell	1928-2014	English	Children's literature	Clifford the Big Red Dog	80	USA
David Baldacci	1960-	English	Thriller		25	USA
Roald Dahl	1916-1990	English	Children's literature	Charlie and the Chocolate Factory	50	UK
Evan Hunter	1926-2005	English	Mystery	Cop Hater	94	USA
Andrew Neiderman	1940-	English	Fantasy	The Devil's Advocate	60	USA
Roger Hargreaves	1935-1988	English	Children's literature	Mr. Men	10	UK
Anne Rice	1941-	English	Fantasy	Interview with the Vampire	27	USA
Robin Cook	1940-	English	Medical thriller	Coma, Outbreak	27	USA
Wilbur Smith	1933-	English	African adventure	When the Lion Feeds	32	Zambia
Erskine Caldwell	1903-1987	English	Modern novel	Tobacco Road	25	USA
Judith Krantz	1928-	English	Romance	Mistral's Daughter	12	USA
Eleanor Hibbert	1906-1993	English	Romance, Historical,		200	UK
Lewis Carroll	1862-1898	English	Children's literature, Fantasy	Alice in Wonderland	5	UK
Denise Robins	1897-1985	English	Romance		200	UK
Cao Xueqin	1715-1763	Chinese	Classic novel	Dream of the Red Chamber		China
Ian Fleming	1908-1964	English	Spy stories	James Bond	14	UK
Hermann Hesse	1877-1962	German	Spiritual novel	Steppenwolf, Siddhartha	45	Switzerland
Rex Stout	1886-1975	English	Mystery	Nero Wolfe	50	USA
Anne Golon	1921-	French	Historical Romance	Angélique	14	French
Frank G. Slaughter	1908-2001	English	Medical, Historical novel		62	USA
Edgar Rice Burroughs	1875-1950	English	Adventure, Fantasy	Tarzan		USA
John Creasey	1908-1973	English	Mystery		600	UK
James Michener	1907-1997	English	Historical novel	Tales of the South Pacific	47	USA
Yasuo Uchida	1934-	Japanese	Mystery	The Togakushi Legend Murders	130+	Japan
Seiichi Morimura	1933-	Japanese	Mystery, Historical	The Devil's Gluttony	350+	Japan
Mary Higgins Clark	1927-	English	Thriller	Where Are The Children?	51	USA
Penny Jordan	1946-2011	English	Romance		200+	UK
Patricia Cornwell	1956-	English	Thriller		34+	USA
Charles Dickens	1812-1970	English	Classic Novel	Oliver Twist , A Christmas Carol		UK
Alexandre Dumas	1802-1970	French	Classic Novel	The Three Musketeers		France
Miguel de Cervantes	1547-1616	Spanish	Classic Novel	Don Quixote		Spain
Jack Higgins	1929-	English	Thriller	The Eagle has Landed	84	USA
Tom Clancy	1947-2013	English	Adventure	The Hunt for Red Octobe		USA
Arthur Conan Doyle	1859-1930	English	Mystery	Sherlock Holmes		USA
Victor Hugo	1802-1885>	French	Classic Novel	Les Misérables, Notre-Dame de Paris		France
Jules Verne	1828-1905	French	Classic Novel	Around the World in Eighty Days		France

Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling

These rules were originally tweeted by Emma Coates, Pixar’s Story Artist. Most can apply to writers in all genres.

1. You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.
2. You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be very different.
3. Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.
4. Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.
5. Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.
6. What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?
7. Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.
8. Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.
9. When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.
10. Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.
11. Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.
12. Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.
13. Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.
14. Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.
15. If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.
16. What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.
17. No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.
18. You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.
19. Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.
20. Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like?
21. You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?
22. What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.

Orwell’s 5 Rules for Effective Writing

George Orwell’s 5 Rules for Effective Writing:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
This sounds easy, but in practice is incredibly difficult. Phrases such as toe the line, ride roughshod over, stand shoulder to shoulder with, play into the hands of, an axe to grind, Achilles’ heel, swan song, and hotbed come to mind quickly and feel comforting and melodic.
For this exact reason they must be avoided. Common phrases have become so comfortable that they create no emotional response. Take the time to invent fresh, powerful images.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
Long words don’t make you sound intelligent unless used skillfully. In the wrong situation they’ll have the opposite effect, making you sound pretentious and arrogant. They’re also less likely to be understood and more awkward to read.
When Hemingway was criticized by Faulkner for his limited word choice he replied:
Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree (Ezra Pound). Accordingly, any words that don’t contribute meaning to a passage dilute its power. Less is always better. Always.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
This one is frequently broken, probably because many people don’t know the difference between active and passive verbs. I didn’t myself until a few months ago. Here is an example that makes it easy to understand:
The man was bitten by the dog. (passive)The dog bit the man. (active).The active is better because it’s shorter and more forceful.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
This is tricky because much of the writing published on the internet is highly technical. If possible, remain accessible to the average reader. If your audience is highly specialized this is a judgment call. You don’t want to drag on with unnecessary explanation, but try to help people understand what you’re writing about. You want your ideas to spread right?
6. Break any of these rules sooner than saying anything outright barbarous.
This bonus rule is a catch all. Above all, be sure to use common sense.These rules are easy to memorize but difficult to apply. Although I’ve edited this piece a dozen times I’m sure it contains imperfections. But trust me, it’s much better now than it was initially. The key is effort. Good writing matters, probably more than you think.


I hope you find these rules helpful, and through their application we’re able to understand each other a little bit better. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to read Orwell’s original essay. It contains many helpful examples and is, of course, a pleasure to read.

A Typology of Folktales

The Types of International Folktales, the "ATU Catalogue" edited by Hans-Jörg Uther (2004).

ANIMAL TALES

•   Wild Animals 1-99
•   The Clever Fox (Other Animal) 1-69
•   Other Wild Animals 70-99
•   Wild Animals and Domestic Animals 100-149
•   Wild Animals and Humans 150-199
•   Domestic Animals 200-219
•   Other Animals and Objects 220-299

TALES OF MAGIC

•   Supernatural Adversaries 300-399
•   Supernatural or Enchanted Wife (Husband) or Other Relative 400-459
•   Wife 400-424
•   Husband 425-449
•   Brother or Sister 450-459
•   Supernatural Tasks 460-499
•   Supernatural Helpers 500-559
•   Magic Objects 560-649
•   Supernatural Power or Knowledge 650-699
•   Other Tales of the Supernatural 700-749

RELIGIOUS TALES

•   God Rewards and Punishes 750-779
•   The Truth Comes to Light 780-791)
•   Heaven 800-809
•   The Devil 810-826
•   Other Religious Tales 827-849

REALISTIC TALES (NOVELLE)

•   The Man Marries the Princess 850-869
•   The Woman Marries the Prince 870-879
•   Proofs of FidelitY and Innocence 880-899
•   The Obstinate Wife Learns to Obey 900-909
•   Good Precepts 910-919
•   Clever Acts and Words 920-929
•   Tales of Fate 930-949 .7;68
•   Robbers and Murderers 950-969
•   Other Realistic Tales 970-999 

 TALES OF THE STUPID OGRE (GIANT, DEVIL)

• Labor Contract 1000-1029
•   Partnership between Man and Ogre 1030-1059
•   Contest between Man and Ogre 1060-1114
•   Man Kills (Injures) Ogre 1115-1144
•   Ogre Frightened by Man 1145-1154
•   Man Outwits the Devil 1155-1169
•   Souls Saved from the Devil 1170-1199

ANECDOTES AND JOKES

•   Stories about a Fool 1200-1349
•   Stories about Married Couples 1350-1439
•   The Foolish Wife and Her Husband 1380-1404
•   The Foolish Husband and His Wife 1405-1429
•   The Foolish Couple 1430-1439
•   Stories about a Woman 1440-1524
•   Looking for a Wife 1450-1474
•   Jokes about Old Maids 1475-1499
•   Other Stories about Women 1500-1524
•   Stories about a Man 1525-1724
•   The Clever Man 1525-1639
•   Lucky Accidents 1640-1674
•   The Stupid Man 1675-1724
•   Jokes about Clergymen and Religious Figures 1725-1849
•   The Clergyman is Tricked 1725-1774
•   Clergyman and Sexton 1775-1799
•   Other Jokes about Religious Figures 1800-1849
•   Anecdotes about Other Groups of People 1850-1874
•   Tall Tales 1875-1999

FORMULA TALES

•   Cumulative Tales 2000-2100
•   Chains Based on Numbers, Objects, Animals, or Names 2000-2020
•   Chains Involving Death 2021-2024
•   Chains Involving Eating 2025-2028
•   Chains Involving Other Events 2029-2075
•   Catch Tales 2200-2299
•   Other Formula Tales 2300-2399

Imagination. Originallity, freshness

Seth's Blog: Advice for authors

With more than 75,000 books published every year (not counting ebooks or blogs), the odds are actually pretty good that you've either written a book, are writing a book or want to write one.

Hence this short list:

1. Lower your expectations. The happiest authors are the ones that don't expect much.
2. The best time to start promoting your book is three years before it comes out. Three years to build a reputation, build a permission asset, build a blog, build a following, build credibility and build the connections you'll need later.
3. Pay for an eidtor editor. Not just to fix the typos, but to actually make your ramblings into something that people will choose to read. I found someone I like working with at the EFA. One of the things traditional publishers used to do is provide really insightful, even brilliant editors (people like Fred Hills and Megan Casey), but alas, that doesn't happen very often. And hiring your own editor means you'll value the process more.
4. Understand that a non-fiction book is a souvenir, just a vessel for the ideas themselves. You don't want the ideas to get stuck in the book... you want them to spread. Which means that you shouldn't hoard the idea! The more you give away, the better you will do.
5. Don't try to sell your book to everyone. First, consider this: ' 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.' Then, consider the fact that among people even willing to buy a book, yours is just a tiny little needle in a very big haystack. Far better to obsess about a little subset of the market--that subset that you have permission to talk with, that subset where you have credibility, and most important, that subset where people just can't live without your b"

Overachievers don't write

Overachievers don't write

Whitney Otto

SATURDAY, MAY 13, 2006

PORTLAND, Oregon The beach book, the novel that we take with us on a languorous summer vacation, when we demand that reading be a pleasure and not a chore, the one "serious" readers apologize for even though they shouldn't, is known more formally as genre fiction. The thing that makes genre fiction so appealing is the same thing that can make it such a bore: It's predictable. If the recent rash of novels classified as chick lit were laid end to end, you would have the literary equivalent of a tract-house development.

Sure, some of the houses are beige and others are cream, but they all have the same two-car garage and marble counters in the kitchen. That's why people buy them. That's why Alloy, the book-packaging company that helped Kaavya Viswanathan with "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life" - portions of which, Viswanathan later admitted, had been copied from other books - specializes in chick lit, the latest incarnation of the romance genre.

I doubt that I'm the first to notice the glaring similarities between romances and chick lit, but in the spirit of recent events, let's say that I am. This is because the pleasure of the predictable romance novel (or chick lit) is the knowledge that a bookish girl can win. A good romance/chick-lit book is about discovery and appreciation. A chick-lit novel tells the reader that humor, imperfect looks and quick wit are desirable even if the world seems to tell the bookish girl otherwise.

And who else would be reading a novel but a bookish girl? Viswanathan is a bookish girl who might have had more success at fiction if she didn't bear the burden of the overachiever. Overachievers don't generally become writers because the skill set is so different. If you want to be a writer, work on the finer points of gossip, eavesdropping and voyeurism; basically the pastimes of the underachiever. If you care to add smoking, drinking and carousing to your repertoire, you wouldn't be the first .

It seems that the first person to see Viswanathan's darker, unfinished novel was her college admissions consultant, someone who, for a nice chunk of change, will get you into that Ivy League college of your choice. The book went on to Alloy, which transformed it into the young-adult chick- lit "Opal Mehta," which borrowed heavily from Megan McCafferty, Sophie Kinsella, Meg Cabot and my favorite, Salman Rushdie, whose name is so often linked with the first three writers.

The mystery of the "Opal Mehta" affair is why would you succumb to the pressure to produce yet another chick lit by-the-numbers book unless you were more motivated by being a writer than actually writing. Viswanathan's collaboration with Alloy would be more understandable if she had been kicking around the publishing scene for a spell, and got really drunk (see above). This is a way of saying that it isn't surprising that a faux writer might want to write a kind of faux novel.

At its best, genre writing can transcend its given genre. Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain and Dashiell Hammett wrote crime classics that often threw an unwelcome light on the ways a person will treat another person given the right circumstances. And Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind" blew the bodice off almost all other romance novels. But if you aren't compelled to write, because you're maybe an overachieving future investment banker, then a paint-by-number approach might be the way to go, bookwise.

It would take an underachieving, gossipy, voyeuristic, bit of a slacker to write a genre novel capable of pulling away from the pack. In the writing life you can't avoid failure. Or, to put it another way, someone who is driven to write is usually not the same sort of person who would work with an expensive college counselor.

That's a little like expecting a claustrophobe to take up a career in a coal mine. And you can't trade on your youth because being young isn't enough to even know your own story, let alone tell it. Some of the best books ever written about youth are by writers long past those dewy days.

At 68, I'm every age I ever was. I always think that I'm not just 68. I'm also 55 and 21 and 3. Oh, especially 3. George Carlin said that but since I'm in such strong agreement, I might as well have said it.

One could say that a chick-lit book comes with such specific requirements to be considered chick lit that enormous similarities to previous books within the genre are almost inevitable. Or you could just write your own book.

PORTLAND, Oregon The beach book, the novel that we take with us on a languorous summer vacation, when we demand that reading be a pleasure and not a chore, the one "serious" readers apologize for even though they shouldn't, is known more formally as genre fiction. The thing that makes genre fiction so appealing is the same thing that can make it such a bore: It's predictable. If the recent rash of novels classified as chick lit were laid end to end, you would have the literary equivalent of a tract-house development.

Sure, some of the houses are beige and others are cream, but they all have the same two-car garage and marble counters in the kitchen. That's why people buy them. That's why Alloy, the book-packaging company that helped Kaavya Viswanathan with "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life" - portions of which, Viswanathan later admitted, had been copied from other books - specializes in chick lit, the latest incarnation of the romance genre.

I doubt that I'm the first to notice the glaring similarities between romances and chick lit, but in the spirit of recent events, let's say that I am. This is because the pleasure of the predictable romance novel (or chick lit) is the knowledge that a bookish girl can win. A good romance/chick-lit book is about discovery and appreciation. A chick-lit novel tells the reader that humor, imperfect looks and quick wit are desirable even if the world seems to tell the bookish girl otherwise.

And who else would be reading a novel but a bookish girl? Viswanathan is a bookish girl who might have had more success at fiction if she didn't bear the burden of the overachiever. Overachievers don't generally become writers because the skill set is so different. If you want to be a writer, work on the finer points of gossip, eavesdropping and voyeurism; basically the pastimes of the underachiever. If you care to add smoking, drinking and carousing to your repertoire, you wouldn't be the first .

It seems that the first person to see Viswanathan's darker, unfinished novel was her college admissions consultant, someone who, for a nice chunk of change, will get you into that Ivy League college of your choice. The book went on to Alloy, which transformed it into the young-adult chick- lit "Opal Mehta," which borrowed heavily from Megan McCafferty, Sophie Kinsella, Meg Cabot and my favorite, Salman Rushdie, whose name is so often linked with the first three writers.

The mystery of the "Opal Mehta" affair is why would you succumb to the pressure to produce yet another chick lit by-the-numbers book unless you were more motivated by being a writer than actually writing. Viswanathan's collaboration with Alloy would be more understandable if she had been kicking around the publishing scene for a spell, and got really drunk (see above). This is a way of saying that it isn't surprising that a faux writer might want to write a kind of faux novel.

At its best, genre writing can transcend its given genre. Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain and Dashiell Hammett wrote crime classics that often threw an unwelcome light on the ways a person will treat another person given the right circumstances. And Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind" blew the bodice off almost all other romance novels. But if you aren't compelled to write, because you're maybe an overachieving future investment banker, then a paint-by-number approach might be the way to go, bookwise.

It would take an underachieving, gossipy, voyeuristic, bit of a slacker to write a genre novel capable of pulling away from the pack. In the writing life you can't avoid failure. Or, to put it another way, someone who is driven to write is usually not the same sort of person who would work with an expensive college counselor.

That's a little like expecting a claustrophobe to take up a career in a coal mine. And you can't trade on your youth because being young isn't enough to even know your own story, let alone tell it. Some of the best books ever written about youth are by writers long past those dewy days.

At 68, I'm every age I ever was. I always think that I'm not just 68. I'm also 55 and 21 and 3. Oh, especially 3. George Carlin said that but since I'm in such strong agreement, I might as well have said it.

One could say that a chick-lit book comes with such specific requirements to be considered chick lit that enormous similarities to previous books within the genre are almost inevitable. Or you could just write your own book.