Before I started to get into reading books, I had no idea a famous author could make so much money. Recently, I was even more shocked when I got my monthly subscription of Forbes magazine.

Why was I so shocked? Well, I didn’t expect to see 3 book authors in “The Celebrity 100″ list, and neither did I expect to see them making 2-4 times more money than some actors put together. Amazing right?

You’re telling me…do you have any idea who these authors are? Don’t worry, I’m going to tell you. Unless you already read Forbes this month than you probably know who they are.

Let see who these Mega-Famous authors are…

The first author I found on the list is Stephen King. If you don’t know who this is, don’t worry. I didn’t either before I met Brittani. I guess he’s kind of a big deal, and I have even watched some of the movies that were based off some of his books. He’s written over 100 plus books and even produced and acted in a big amount of movies. This year he made $34 million bucks; not bad for a writer eh? I learned not to prejudge this career ever again.

Okay so what? Well I decided to check out his wiki and learn a bit about him and why he’s been so successful. I wanted to know why he’s gotten to where he’s at and what is it about his writing that’s so interesting. I even picked up a book of him from my girlfriend, but I couldn’t read past the first few pages. I’m foreign, give me a break. I don’t have the vocabulary to understand the books quite yet.

King’s formula for learning to write well is: “Read and write four to six hours a day. If you cannot find the time for that, you can’t expect to become a good writer.” He sets out each day with a quota of 2000 words and will not stop writing until it is met. He also has a simple definition for talent in writing: “If you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, if you cashed the check and it didn’t bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented.”

When asked why he writes, King responds: “The answer to that is fairly simple—there was nothing else I was made to do. I was made to write stories and I love to write stories. That’s why I do it. I really can’t imagine doing anything else and I can’t imagine not doing what I do.” He is also often asked why he writes such terrifying stories and he answers with another question “Why do you assume I have a choice?” – wikipedia

So if you’re a blogger, I think you can take something of his formula and run with it. I think I’ve heard others do the same but now that I hear it coming from somebody that’s made more money writing stories I BELIEVE!

Okay now you might be impressed by Stephen King’s earnings. But he’s been writing for a long time now and he’s built a name for his work through the years. But this next author has really created not only a huge following, but a tremendous income in just a few years with her most popular series, “Twilight.”

If you have not heard about Twilight over the last 3-4 years than you’ve probably been hiding under a rock.

Stephanie Meyer made $40 million this year, and last year she made $50 million. In just over 3 years she’s built a mind blowing income writing stories. I would say so she’s doing pretty good for herself.

She also says that her writing is strongly influenced by music, and she posts “playlists” (from Playlist.com) on her website of songs which specifically inspired her books. Bands included most often in her playlists are Muse, Blue October, My Chemical Romance, Coldplay, and Linkin Park - wikipedia

Now let’s look at the BIG Papa of writers, James Patterson. I don’t know if it was his experience in advertising before he became a full-time writer that made him so successful, or just the great content that he’s produced. I think its fair to say he’s written great stuff. It this wasn’t true he wouldn’t be admired by so many readers.

It’s really surprising to find that another famous writer like Stephen King would go on to criticize him, saying “Patterson’s bibliography as being made up of “dopey thrillers,” which Patterson has responded to with, “I’m a storyteller. There are thousands of people who don’t like what I do. Fortunately, there are millions who do.” – wikipedia

Patterson is the Worlds-Best-Selling author. He is probably the richest of all, and for good reason. He’s obviously done something right to be able to make another $70 million bucks in 12 months.

Obviously all these people here have not just went from zero to millions, I am pretty sure there’s has been a lot of thinking and hard work before they became what they are known for today.

I know this might not be what you’re used to reading at wilsonusman.com but I just felt this could be an inspiration to a lot of bloggers and entrepreneurs out there.

I once heard that the best way to communicate is by telling stories instead of pure facts. It’s more compelling and effective.

Here’s what Gary Vaynerchuk said about storytelling:

A few ideas I took from this was, selling stories can be quite profitable if you’re good and you can build a following.

You need to write everyday at least 2000 words to get better at writing.

And last would be that, you don’t have to be liked by everyone to be the worlds best author.

What did you learn from this? Are you a blogger? If so what do you think can be applied to blogging from storytelling? Do you think that in the future we will see more celebrity authors popping up making millions like this?

photo credit

No related posts.