“This is one of Hemingway’s most compelling books due to the religious themes and the focus on minority groups, at a time when prejudice in America was prevalent.” – Kyle
It is not an easy thing—becoming a successful author. Rarely does it happen over night and for many, it doesn’t happen at all. It takes a lot to become a truly successful word weavers, but it can happen. The following authors are examples of that. Selling over 30 MILLION copies each, here are five of writers you need to read.
1. Scott Turow
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Lawyer-turned-author Scott Turow has written eleven novels in addition to three nonfiction books, which in total have been translated into over forty languages and sold more than 30 million copies. He is best known for his legal thrillers Presumed Innocent, The Burden of Proof, Pleading Guilty, and Personal Injuries, which was named by Time magazine as the Best Fiction Novel of 1999. Turow has won multiple literary awards, most notably the Silver Dagger Award of the British Crime Writers’ Association.
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In addition to this, Turow has no less than six Hollywood movie adaptations under his belt, including Presumed Innocent, starring Harrison Ford, and Reversible Evidence, starring William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman. Turow was elected the president of the Authors Guild in 2010, and was previously president from 1997 to 1998. He still practices law; most of the cases he works are pro-bono, including the 1995 case of Alejandro Hernandez, a man who spent eleven years on death row for a murder he did not commit.
2. Charlaine Harris
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New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire Mysteries series has sold more than 30 million copies as well as becoming a hit TV show, True Blood. Harris has penned at least twenty-five novels including the Aurora Teagarden Series, the Lily Bard series and the Harper Connelly series.
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After much ghost-story writing and teen angst poetry, Harris began her novel writing career with Real Murders, the first in the Aurora Teagarden series which was nominated for Best Novel 1990 at the Agatha Awards. 1996 saw the release of the first in the Lily Bard series, set in small town Arkansas where Harris lived at the time. In 2001, Harris released the first Sookie Stackhouse mystery, Dead Until Dark, which won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery. The series would become the Southern Vampire Mysteries, later adapted by HBO into hit TV show True Blood.
3. Neil Gaiman
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Author of such beloved modern classics as Stardust, Coraline, and American Gods, among many others, Neil Gaiman is something of an institution at this stage. Straddling the dual worlds of novel writing and graphic novel writing, Gaiman’s Sandman series of graphic novels alone have sold over 30 million copies, while his novels have shifted an additional 10 million copies.
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Among Gaiman’s countless accolades the the Newbery and Carnegie medalsHugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards. In 2013, The Ocean at the End of the Lane was voted Book of the Year in the British National Book Awards.
4. Rick Riordan
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Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson series, which has inspired two film adaptations, has sold a cool 55 million copies and been translated into forty-two languages. He first got the idea for the Percy Jackson series, which follows a young boy who discovers he is the son of ancient Greek god Poseidon, when inventing bedtime stories for his sons, one of whom has ADHD and dyslexia, thus influencing Riordan’s decision to have the character Percy deal with these conditions, also.
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Riordan co-created the children’s series The 39 Clues, and has penned many additional books including the Tres Navarre series for adults, The Heroes of Olympus series, and The Maze of Bones, which topped The New York Times Best Seller list.
5. Veronica Roth
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Divergent author Veronica Roth is the youngest author on this list, having penned hit YA dystopian tale Divergent at just nineteen, and since selling over 40 million copies of Divergent and its sequels. She had a publishing deal before graduating Northwestern University, and each of the books, Divergent, Insurgent and Allegiant were made into Hollywood films films.
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In January 2017, Roth released a new YA novel, Carve the Mark, the sequel to which, The Fates Divide came out in April 2018.
There are are innumerable ways to judge an author’s success—the first way tends to be counting book sales. Instagram follows don’t measure the technical quality of writing, rather they measure less tangible, but still extremely important things: connection and community. These ten authors are the most successful (verified) YA authors of Instagram, and they’re successful because of you. Chances are, you’re better off because of them.
Most famous for his Percy Jackson series (starting with The Lightning Thief), Rick Riordan is the bestselling author of over twenty books. Riordan conceptualized the series as he told bedtime stories to his son, and it was his son who inspired its eponymous protagonist’s ADHD and Dyslexia—traits that help to make Percy Jackson a relatable character for readers with learning disabilities. The series currently has two film adaptations. Translations of his work exist in forty-two languages, and they’ve sold well over 30 million copies in the U.S. alone. His Trials of Apollo series (start with The Hidden Oracle) is still ongoing.
3. Cassandra Clare (491k)
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Cassandra Clare is the creator of the sprawling Shadowhunters universe where angelic warriors hunt demons to protect our world. On page, this entails a lot of leather-wearing misfits who uncover shocking secret after shocking secret as they do cool, edgy teenager things (like riding on the back of flying motorcycles or constantly making out). The universe contains three series: The Mortal Instruments (start with City of Bones); The Infernal Devices (start with Clockwork Angel), and The Dark Artifices (start with Lady Midnight). The universe will expand to include at least one other trilogy, and it already includes several spin-off novels featuring favorite characters. The Shadowhunters universe has been adapted multiple times, first as a film and second as wildly popular TV series. Perhaps most impressively, Clare has been a champion of LGBT+ representation in YA genre fiction, even in the genre’s earlier days. Since the universe’s creation in 2007, every single Shadowhunters book has featured queer protagonists across a wide spectrum of identities.
4. Hank Green (403k)
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Hank Green may be the only author on this list most famous for something besides his writing. In addition to his recent bestselling debut novel, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Green has had a devoted Internet following since 2007 as one half of the Vlogbrothers, his shared YouTube channel with brother John Green. Hank and John are the co-founders of VidCon, the world’s largest conference for online videos. Hank has also acted as a contributing producer for a number of popular podcasts and web shows like Sexplanations and The Lizzie Bennet Diaries.
5. Sarah J. Maas (300k)
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Author of the Throne of Glass series, Sarah J. Maas experienced a career takeoff in 2008 when earlier drafts of the series became some of the most popular works on FictionPress.com. A Cinderella story with a dark twist, Maas’ series has been an international bestseller with publication in fifteen countries. Amazingly, these weren’t even the original drafts—Maas began writing the series’ first book, Throne of Glass, at the tender age of sixteen. Maas has also written a prequel series (start with The Assassin and the Pirate Lord) and the A Court of Thorn and Roses series (start with, you guessed it, A Court of Thorn and Roses). Her first adult fantasy series is forthcoming.
James Dashner is the hugely prolific author of nearly twenty novels, including the dystopian hit The Maze Runner, which earned a film adaptation. Dashner was dropped by Penguin Random House in 2018 following sexual harassment allegations.
8. Veronica Roth (206k)
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The definition of a prodigy and star, Veronica Roth sold film rights to her first novel, Divergent, months before the book saw print—and she sold the publishing rights before graduating college. Roth wrote the first draft of the novel during senior year winter break, and it sold well over a million copies within the next two years. Roth is also famous for her novels Insurgentand Allegiant, the second and third books of her dystopian series in which society operates with personality-based factions that define each person’s profession and goals. (And believe it or not, removing all kind and generous people from the government so that they can work on farms is not a great leadership strategy.)
9. Colleen Hoover (202k)
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Breakout romance novelist Colleen Hoover had no intentions of ever mainstream-publishing her first novel, Slammed. Astoundingly, it made the New York Times bestseller list as a self-published work. Hoover published Hopelessjust a year later—and it became the first self-published novel to ever break #1 on the chart. A five-time winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards, Hoover has written eleven bestsellers in only seven years. While several of Hoover’s works have been published with Atria Books, Hoover has shattered the limits of what self-publishing can accomplish.
10. Rainbow Rowell (136k)
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Rainbow Rowell is the author of three wildly popular YA novels: Fangirl, Eleanor & Park, and Carry On. Famously, Fangirl began as a NaNoWriMo project—yes, that means the first draft was written in thirty days! Rowell famously faced controversy for the exploration of domestic violence in Eleanor & Park, with one Minnesota school district canceling her appearance and banning her book during Banned Books Week. Sounds like somebody missed the point! Despite this, the novel went on to earn a Michael L. Printz Award Honor, one of the highest recognitions in YA literature (other honored books include Angie Thomas‘ acclaimed The Hate U Give).
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Known for spinning tales of ancient mythology coexisting in the modern world, and young heroes navigating the space between two worlds, Rick Riordan is considered to be one of the best fantasy authors of this day. Author of the best-selling Percy Jackson series and the Heroes of Olympics series, Rick Riordan infuses his stories with sharp humor, Greek and Roman mythology, and on point pop culture references. Here are ten quotes from some of his best works.
1. “With great power… comes great need to take a nap. Wake me up later.”
― The Last Olympian
2. “If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself.”
― The Lightning Thief
3. “Go on with what your heart tells you, or you will lose all.”
― The Lightning Thief
4. “Even strength must bow to wisdom sometimes.”
― The Lightning Thief
5. “The real world is where the monsters are.”
― The Lightning Thief
6. “But remember, boy, that a kind act can sometimes be as powerful as a sword.
― The Battle of the Labyrinth
7. “Being a hero doesn’t mean you’re invincible. It just means that you’re brave enough to stand up and do what’s needed.”
― The Mark of Athena
8. “Remake the wild, a little at a time, each in your own corner of the world. You cannot wait for anyone else, even a god, to do that for you.”
― The Battle of the Labyrinth
9. It seemed weird calling a teenager ‘sir’ but I’d learned to be careful with immortals. They tended to get offended easily. Then, they blew stuff up.
― The Titan’s Curse
10. “You might as well ask an artist to explain his art, or ask a poet to explain his poem. It defeats the purpose. The meaning is only clear through the search.”
― The Titan’s Curse
