10 Best-Selling Authors Of All Time

Who are the best-selling authors of all time? And how did they rack up such untouchable numbers? It is worth taking a deep dive into the available data and unpack what it has to say about the history of book sales, from the origins of modern English literature up through the 20th-century industrialization of publishing. Where does an author like Stephen King place in the overall rankings? What about Dr. Seuss? The answers to those questions might surprise you. Plus, this list offers an illuminating look at the kinds of books that move the most units. What genre has a heavy hand on the scale with this list, comprising three entries? And which genre doesn't show up at all? Again, those answers are surprising. (Before getting started, a quick note on the composition of this list. Book sales data is far from an exact science. This list follows the Top 10 compiled on Wikipedia, but with a few notable changes. The Wiki list includes low and high estimated totals for each entry, and is ranked by the high-end estimates. This list ranks by the low-end estimate. Further, there are several inconsistencies with the Wiki list, jagged edges that haven't been smoothed out, so to speak. This list sticks with the Top 10 as given, in order to look at some forgotten names in literary history, along with some household names, and their formidable impact on the publishing industry, particularly in the 20th century. However, this list could be subject to revision based on newfound data in the future.) 10 Jackie Collins Between 1968 and 2015, the year she passed away, Jackie Collins wrote 32 novels and became one of the names synonymous with romance fiction in the 20th century. Romance is one of the leading genres in modern fiction, by the numbers, and Collins capitalized on that to crack the Top 10 list. In addition to nearly a dozen standalone novels, Collins wrote two novels starring protagonist Fontaine Khaled, five installments in the "Hollywood" series, her longrunning "Santangelo" series, and the "Madison Castelli" books. By the 2000s, Jackie Collins was a household name, having cultivated a zealously devoted fanbase that devoured every new release; because she was putting out about a book a year, sales compounded to solidify her position as one of the most profitable authors ever. 9 Enid Blyton Enid Blyton doesn't have the same name recognition today as Jackie Collins, or many other names on this list, but the names of some of her stories might ring a bell: "The Magic Faraway Tree," the "Barney Mysteries" books, her "Famous Five" novels, "We Do Love Mary Mouse," "The Wishing-Chair" duology. That's just some of the hundreds of books Blyton wrote between the 1930s and 1960s. She became one of the most successful children's literature authors of the early 20th century, which secured her global success. Blyton's collective works are the fourth most frequently translated English-language books of all time, and the ninth bestselling, in total. Blyton's work has been reappraised in recent years and found to have some fatal flaws, but her status as an all-time bestseller was secured decades ago, and hasn't wavered since. 8 Georges Simenon Georges Simenon is a household name, depending on where you live. His reputation isn't as great in the United States these days, but in France, his home country of Belgium, and other parts of Europe, he's still revered as one of the 20th century's best crime fiction authors. To the tune of half a billion book sales worldwide. Simenon wrote detective novels, but also literary fiction. He was a master of the short story, as well as a prolific novelist. He is best known for his recurring protagonist Jules Maigret. In total, Simenon authored hundreds of short and novel-length stories, highlighting the frequent correlation between volume of titles and volume of sales. Today, Simenon is perhaps best remembered for his pioneering fusion of literary and populist writing. George Simenon wanted most of his books to be read in a day, but he wouldn't sacrifice quality or depth to achieve that. 7 Danielle Steel In the same vein as Jackie Collins, Danielle Steel ranks up there among the most recognizable names in modern romance fiction. Steel has written nearly 200 novels in her career, and each one has been a certified bestseller. That makes her good for the #6 spot on this list, but she's arguably the #1 bestselling contemporary writer of all time. Steel published her first novel in 1973. By the early 1980s, she started averaging 2-4 books per year, an unreal pace she has kept up for over 40 years. Even more remarkably, in that time, she's never stopped being must-read for her core audience. That make the case for Danielle Steel being the most reliable and most marketable fiction author in history. Prolific is an understatement for Steel's output. And as for her bestseller bona fides, just look at the statistics for '90s bestsellers alone, in which she is a constant, major factor. The conservative low-end estimate for Steel's sales puts her at just 500 million, but the upper end could reportedly be as a high as eight million. 6 Barbara Cartland Barbara Cartland's stats are over-the-top. The British socialite wrote more than 700 books, hundreds of which were still unpublished at the time of her death in 2000 at 98-years-old. Cartland is one of the most translated authors ever, ranking just behind Enid Blyton on the list. And her books have been cited as selling between 500 million and 1 billion copies. Even accepting the lower figure as the more accurate total, that is still good for #6 on this list. As a romance author, Cartland walked so authors like Jackie Collins (whose work the older writer was reportedly scandalized by) and Danielle Steel could run. Cartland also wrote historical fiction, and some non-fiction, and dabbled in other genres over the years, but her predominant success was in the romance genre. Despite her history-making publishing numbers, Barbara Cartland is a forgotten icon of 20th century fiction for many modern readers, but it is never too late to chip in and add to her totals. 5 Eiichiro Oda Unlike Enid Blyton, the next couple names on this list are modern authors, making their massive success even harder to comprehend. Eiichiro Oda's One Piece debuted in 1997, and is now the recognized record-holder for the #1 manga and #1 comic series worldwide, in terms of sales. One Piece has sold an estimated 600 million copies in 29 years. What is behind this outrageous sales figure? There are over one hundred entries in the series, which is a significant factor. Still, a series has to hook readers and keep them invested on a page-by-page basis to keep them buying that many volumes. One Piece has pulled this off to a hard-to-comprehend degree. One Piece is also still going. That makes it the entry on this list with the most upward potential. The series sits at #5 now, but expect it to rise up the ranks and elbow its way into the Top 3 within the next 5-10 years. 4 J.K. Rowling Remarkably, Harry Potter and One Piece started at almost the exact same time. The first Potter book and the inaugural chapter of One Piece dropped within a month of each other. And since then, they've been neck-and-neck in terms of astronomical sales numbers, with J.K. Rowling's total just slightly edging Eiichiro Oda's by an estimated 50 million. (For now.) That includes the seven main Harry Potter novels but also supplementals like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. It also includes Rowling's post-Potter works, like The Casual Vacancy and the "Cormoran Strike" books, published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. Though Oda seems on track to supplant Rowling in the #4 spot at some point, the impending release of HBO's Harry Potter reboot series, and the show's 10-year plan, will almost certainly lead to a corresponding renaissance for Rowling's book sales. 3 Harold Robbins Harold Robbins is one of the forgotten greats of 20th-century fiction. Forgotten except when it comes to lifetime bestsellers that is; when the topic is "most books sold," Robbins' name is unavoidable. His adventure novels are credited with having sold three-quarters of a billion copies over the last eighty years. That is, with just a couple dozen titles to his name. Unlike some of the other names we've encountered on this list already, (Enid Blyton, Georges Simenon, and even Eiichiro Oda) Robbins didn't produce hundreds of books. But his books were juggernaut bestsellers in the back half of the 20th century, starting in 1948. On a level that can be tough to fathom today. Many of Robbins' books were made into movies and TV miniseries, particularly in the '60s and '70s, which helped compound his book sales. His novels might have been rendered deep cuts now by the passage of time, but he still has a dominant place in the Top 5 all-time bestsellers. 2 Agatha Christie We mentioned earlier that Barbara Cartland (#6 by our count) is sometimes reported as having sold up to one billion books. Going by that number, Cartland would rank third on this list, and even then, she would still only have sold half as many books as the second ranking author, Agatha Christie. The iconic mystery author is cited as having sold two billion books, on the low end. She is best known for the foundational crime thriller And Then There Were None (one of the bestselling books of all time, accounting for a significant percentage of Christie's overall total) as well as for her Miss Marples and Hercule Poirot detective books. Christie's works are widely translated, globally recognized as progenital entries in the mystery genre, and constantly in print going on a century after her career began. She is the bestselling novelist of all time, coming in second overall only to the most revered name in English literature. 1 William Shakespeare Besides the Bible, the works of William Shakespeare are collectively considered the #1 bestselling books in literary history. Shakespeare is a titan of English-language writing, and his work is endlessly printed and reprinted. Shakespeare is also perhaps the most widely taught author ever, meaning copies of his plays are bought in scores by schools and students every year, helping to juice his totals. That number involves a lot of extrapolation, though, to be transparent. Shakespeare's works are over 400 years old, and sales figures today are tricky to tabulate. Going back centuries involves a lot of guesswork. That said, it tracks that Shakespeare would be the leader of the pack. While his Complete Works looks great on a shelf, most people tend to buy individual copies of his plays, of which there are over 40. Shakespeare's status on this list might be partially ceremonial, but it is a testament to the fact that practically every literate household in the world can be said to have at least one copy of one of his plays on a shelf somewhere. The Next 10 While some of the names above might come as a surprise to readers, it is only because they rank above many much more recognizable names. Expand to look at the Top 20, and we get authors like: Dr. Seuss, Akira Toriyama, Leo Tolstoy, James Patterson, Dean Koontz, and the author of The Stand, The Shining, IT, and 60+ other books, Stephen King. All of these authors are on the verge of cracking the Top 10, or could have been bumped up onto the list if, say, Shakespeare were omitted. This is because high-end totals for bestselling authors tend to be rounded up in reporting. So, all the numbers have to be treated with some measure of skepticism. That said, it is interesting to look at this list, as it is constituted, and consider how there is an overlap between commercial success and name recognition, but not necessarily 100%. Most of authors widely cited as the greatest of all time don't come near making this list, while multiple names here have been largely forgotten by today's readers.