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Top 10 Most Famous Authors in the World

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So ready to finally let go of your excitement by getting yourself to the bookstore and buy another piece of your favourite author’s latest novel? Is not that what all the reading fanatics do? I remember the last time I went in search of a book of one of my favourite authors and had gone haywire when I could not find that in any of the bookstore. I was depressed. I am sure most of you do have a passion to get a complete collection of your favourite author. Now the basic question is, can everybody become an author as famous as the ones you prefer? Well, not everybody has got the talent. It requires skill and talent to be able to write well and communicate your thought processes through your words. Writing is a form of an art which invokes one’s inner feelings and to do so, they need to have a good vocabulary to explain precisely what they mean in the most coherent manner. Most writers seem to be keen thinkers and observers who absorb their surrounding and pour it in words. You, being a reader, must also know that not every author got success in an instant. Most of the authors initially had to face rejection from the publishing agencies before their books made it up to the notch and go on becoming a bestseller. But their passion to accomplish something did not just fade away in the dark in the face of rejection. Most of them did not hanker after commercial success. They just wrote because that is what they loved and in the process gained both name and fame. Their works have contributed a lot in the society. They have, in a way, made a great impact not only in the literary world but also in the lives of their readers. Let it be a work of fiction or non-fiction, they do not fail to stir strong emotions within us either of happiness, sadness or amusement, so on and so forth. Not only this, they are a true inspiration to many writers who aspire to be on among them in the future. Check out the list of some of the famous authors below who have left a mark in the literary kingdom and continue doing so even today.

 

1. Danielle Steel

Danielle Steel

Danielle Steel, born on 14 August, 1947, is an American novelist who is claimed to be the bestselling author alive and the fourth bestselling author of all time, having sold more than 800 million copies. She has published several books a year and all of her novels have been bestsellers with a basic mainstream theme that includes the rich families being surrounded by jail, frauds, etc. She has even contributed to Child fiction and poetry including raising funds for the mentally ill people. Out of her books, 22 have been adopted for films and two have received Golden Globe nominations. Her works were sold into 28 languages. She used to write freelance articles in magazines after which she took up writing books and in 1972, she published her first novel, Going Home. All of her novels delve the issues like suicide, incest, divorce, etc. and she has gradually evolved as one of the best fiction writers of all time with a tough base for her works sidetracking from romance to suspense. Although her books have been criticized for being redundant and detailed, her fan base is extremely strong making her atop the charts. Her works include, Going Home, Now and Forever, Lightning, A Perfect Stranger, etc.

 

2. Nicholas Sparks

Nicholas Sparks

Nicholas Charles Sparks was born on 31 December, 1965 in Omaha, Nebraska. He is an American author, screenwriter and producer and specializes in the romantic genre. Most of his works are fictitious except for one. Till date, he wrote as many as 17 novels all of which are bestsellers and some of them have been promoted to motion pictures such as Message in a Bottle, Save Haven, A Walk to Remember, etc. He has written two unpublished books while still in school, namely, The Passing and The Royal Murders. In 1990, he co-wrote a book called Wokini: A Lakota Journey to Happiness and Self-understanding along with Billy Mills and got it published, selling almost 50,000 copies. In later years, he wrote a book, Notebook, which was later found out by a literary agent Theresa Park. She liked it and got it published in 1996, making it the New York Times bestseller list in its first week of release. After his first success, he went on to write other novels such as The Rescue, A Bend in the Road, Dear John, etc. His latest work, The Longest Ride, will be released on 24th September, 2013.

 

3. Sidney Sheldon

Sidney Sheldon

Sidney Sheldon, born on February 11, 1917 in Chicago, Illinois, was an Academy Award winning American writer. He was indulged 20 years into TV works after which he took up writing his bestselling novels such as The Rage of Angels, Master of the Game, etc. He is regarded as the seventh bestselling fiction author of all time. Sheldon was a Broadway Stage musical writer and also collaborated with the MGM Studios and Paramount Pictures as a screenplay writer after which he earned fame as a prolific writer and was assigned to write for a Hollywood picture, The Bachelor and Bobby-Soxer. This got him the Academy Award for best original screenplay in 1947. He created, wrote and produced the series of I Dream of Jeannie which was a hit back then. Eventually after that, he started to get inclined towards writing novels and his first book, Naked Face, earned him a nomination for the Edgar Allen Poe Award in the category of ’best first novel’. His second novel, The Other Side of Midnight, reached to #1 in the list of New York Times Bestseller and so did most of his books. Some of them have even made it to films. He wrote a total of 18 novels all of which contains the same genre- crime and suspense with female protagonist and his books have sold over 300 million copies.

 

4. Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho, born on 24 August, 1947 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is a Brazilian novelist and lyricist. He is the most widely read authors in the present times and has received many international awards including the Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum. He set off to write his first novel, Hell Archives, which was a failure. But that didn’t turn him down. His pilgrimage to Santiago in 1986 made him to write his next novel, The Pilgrimage. Later, he went on to write The Alchemist, which was being published by a small Brazilian publishing house selling only 900 copies at the inception. Coelho later found out a bigger publishing agency and with his publication of Brida, The Alchemist made a bestseller in Brazil, selling over 65 million copies and becoming a bestselling book in history. This novel is translated into 71 languages which made it into the Guinness Book of World Records being the most translated book by a living author. Following the grand success of The Alchemist, Coelho started to write one book every two years and has sold over 150 million copies in over 150 countries across. He has published 30 books, to date, along with his essays and columns. Some of his works are The Valkyries, Eleven Minutes, The Winner Stands Alone, etc.

 

5. J.K. Rowling

J K Rowling

J. K. Rowling, born on 31 July, 1965, in Yate, England, is a British novelist who is best known for the Harry Potter series. The Potter books have received worldwide fame and attention, getting lots of awards and have sold over 400 million copies. They are the bestselling fiction books in the history and the attuned films series have been the highest-grossing film series in history. Before becoming an author, she was initially working as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International and later conceived the thought of writing the Harry Potter series in 1990. Her first novel of the Potter series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997) was bestseller for many weeks and her last book of the series being the, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows(2007) won millions of heart after which Rowling has parted with her agency and joined adult writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, The Cuckoo’s Calling in 2013. She is ranked as the twelfth richest woman in the United Kingdom, her annual budget being $798 million. She has received multiple awards for the Potter series and has been tagged under many bestselling lists including “Most Influential Woman in Britain” by leading magazines.

 

6. Stephenie Meyer

Stephenie Meyer

Stephenie Meyer, born on 24 December, 1973 in Hartford, Connecticut, is an American author and producer, best known for her vampire series, Twilight. The Twilight novels gained recognition across the globe for having sold over 100 million copies into 37 languages. Meyer was the bestselling author in the years 2008 and 2009 in America for having sold 29 million books in 2008 and 26.5 million in 2009. Twilight remained the bestseller in the US bookstores in 2008. This fame and wide acceptance of her vampire romance series ranked her #49 on Times Magazine’s list under “100 Most Influential People in 2008”. Forbes ranked her as #59 most powerful celebrities. Following the success of her first book Twilight in 2005, she went on to write the next three books- New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, which apparently gained huge success and sold over 100 million copies worldwide, even breaking the record of J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle The Bard. This gave her the British Book Award and many more in the subsequent year. The Twilight series have made it to the New York Times Bestseller list for 143 weeks straight away and was on the top 4 spots in the USA Today’s year-end list in 2009 and have been made into motion pictures. Her other works include The Host, Midnight Sun, etc.

 

7. Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, was born on 15 September, 1890 in Devon, England. She was an English crime writer of novels and also wrote many plays and short stories including six romances under a different name, Mary Westmacott. She is famous for her detective novels and short crime stories which she wrote without any pseudonym most of which revolved around the characters such as Hercule Poirot, Miss Jane Marple, etc, which were investigative and acclaimed great success. Initially, like most other authors, her works were being rejected but later with the publishing agency called The Bodley Head, her first novel, The Mysterious Affairs at Styles was a stepping stone in her literary career. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, she is the bestselling novelist of all time after William Shakespeare and the Bible and her works rank third as the most widely published books. According to Index Translationum, she is the most translated author having her books translated into 103 different languages. Her bestselling works include And Then There were None, The Mousetrap, Love from a Stranger, etc.

 

8. Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey Howard Archer, an English author and a former politician was born on April 15, 1940 in London. Before becoming an author, he was a Member of Parliament but later he had to resign due to a financial scandal. Archer gained an academic qualification in teaching which was awarded by the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education during his study for 3 years though he claims that he was not a full undergraduate at the Oxford. Later he went on to be a charity fundraiser and was also the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. His first novel, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less was first published in the US and became a bestseller even in the UK in 1976 which also earned him enough fortune to avoid his bankruptcy. His other work, Kane and Abel reached to millions being a bestseller and also curved out a place as the number 1 bestselling book in the New York Times Bestseller list. It was also made into a television show. And Thereby Hangs a Tale, A Quiver Full of Arrows, etc. are some of his works which sold million copies all over.

 

9. Cecelia Ahern

Cecilia Ahern

Cecelia Ahern is an Irish novelist, born on September 31, 1981 Dublin, Ireland. Before she started off her career in writing. She has obtained a degree in Journalism and Media Communications from Griffith College, Dublin. She is a fiction writer and has started writing her first novel PS, I Love You which was published in 2004 and became an instant bestseller. It remained number 1 bestseller in Ireland (for 19 weeks) and also in the United Kingdom, United States, Germany and Netherlands. It was sold across 40 countries and more and has even adopted as a motion picture which too became a grand success. Her second book, Where Rainbow Ends too received a huge applaud becoming the number 1 bestseller across the globe and was awarded the German CORINE Award in 2005. She has even contributed to charity books and short stories such as Short and Sweet, Irish Girls are Back in Town, etc. Cecelia also co-created and produced shows like ABC and Samantha Who? Her other works include The Gift, If You Could See Me Now, and many more.

 

10. Robin Cook

Robin Cook

Dr. Robin Cook is an American physician and a novelist whose main genre is about medicine and public health. He was born on May 4, 1940 in New York City. Many of his works have a blended genre of both thriller and medical writings and so is best known for the genre of medical thriller. His books were featured in the Reader’s Digest and most of his novels have been bestsellers on the New York Times Bestseller List. Cook’s books have anticipated national controversies and in all of his novels, he basically writes about certain medical issues which the public are unaware about. Cook believes that his works are not just entertaining the readers but are actually teaching people something about the issues they are most concerned about. He started writing fiction since 1970 and his books have sold nearly 100 million copies all over. Till date, he has touched issues like organ donation, in-vitro fertilization, genetic engineering, etc. Some of his famous novels like Coma, Sphinx, and Mortal Fear have made their way into the television production featured into movies.

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