Every writer dreams of becoming a best-selling author. We know of course that very few attain this status! Who do you think was on the top of the pile of best-selling authors last year? How well did your favourite author do and how much of the big bucks did he/she make? My questions were answered when I saw the list of best selling authors in Forbes. Sure, I know who James Patterson is. I have read many of his books and been a fan of Alex Cross for years. But honestly I didn’t realize just how much of a success Patterson is until I saw that he earned something like $ 70 million in the year ended June 2010! He has written more than 50 bestsellers and over 170 million copies of his books have been sold worldwide. The combined earnings of the top 10 best-selling authors last year was around $ 270 million!
I came away greatly inspired. By the way, just for perspective , I find that the Indian publishing market as per an article in the Washington Post is expected to be about $ 2.9 billion. It has grown by 60 % in the past 5 years. I recall reading elsewhere that the average sales of an English fiction book in India is about 3000-5000.
Prem Rao : Stories from a Story Teller 