.Today in "that's a lot of money" news, we have Forbes's list of the world's top-earning authors. E.L. James got the number one spot — she pulled in $95 million for her Fifty Shades of Grey series between June 2012 and June 2013. And that's exclusively book sales. James also got $5 million for a film adaptation of Fifty Shades, which is expected to come out August 2014.
The rest of the list is comprised of who you'd expect. Stephanie Collins is at number 3 on the list — she made $55 million for her Hunger Games series. Dan Brown pulled in $22 million, and Danielle Steel made $26 million. Oh, and Bill O'Reilly was fourth on the list with $28 million.
James bumped the usual first place winner out of his spot this year. James Patterson only made $91 million, which puts him in second place. According to Forbes, one out of every 17 hardcover books sold in the U.S. is his. Pretty staggering that James has only published three books and was able to knock out a long-standing titan — and not bad for some Twilight fan fiction.