Fifty Shades of Grey author coining it

Cape Town - About a third of the 16 top-earning authors of 2013 on the latest Forbes list are women.

At earnings of $95m (about R981m) EL James, a former television executive and author of Fifty Shades of Grey, is not only the top earning female author, but also the top earner on the list as a whole.

She sold more copies faster than any other author in history — more than 70 million in the first eight months they were on sale in the US.

Forbes bases its estimates on sales data, published figures and information from industry sources between June 2012 and June 2013.

The $55m Suzanne Collins earned from books like the Hunger Games and The Underland Chronicles, put her in third place on the list as a whole.

Danielle Steel, who published her first novel - Going Home - in 1973 has been a regular on the list over the years. Her earnings of $26m put her at number five on the 2013 list.

Just $2m short of Steel is Janet Evanovich, author of the Stephanie Plum detective novels. Her earnings of $24m put her 7th on the list.

She is followed by Nora Roberts at number 8 thanks to earnings of $23m. Apart from James, Roberts sold the most e-books, namely 3.2 million.

Harry Potter's "mother" JK Rowling comes in at number 15 on the latest list with earnings of $13m.

- Fin24

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