Two billion copies here, four hundred novels there. Romance, horror, wuxia and children's rhyme all sit on the same shelf in this one.
1Agatha ChristieGuinness World Records lists her as the best-selling fiction writer ever, at roughly two billion copies.
2William ShakespeareThe English playwright whose collected works rival any novelist's sales four centuries on.
3Barbara CartlandThe romance novelist who published more than 700 books and sold them by the hundreds of millions.
4J.K. RowlingThe Harry Potter author, the best-selling novelist of the modern era.
5Danielle SteelThe most prolific living romance novelist, with a book on the bestseller list almost every year since 1980.
6Stephen KingThe horror novelist whose titles have sold hundreds of millions and been filmed dozens of times.
7Leo TolstoyThe Russian novelist behind War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
8Enid BlytonThe children's author of the Famous Five and Noddy, translated into 90 languages.
9Georges SimenonThe Belgian creator of Inspector Maigret, who wrote roughly 400 books.
10Dr. SeussTheodor Geisel, whose rhyming picture books taught much of America to read.
11Jackie CollinsThe novelist of Hollywood excess, with 32 New York Times bestsellers.
12Harold RobbinsThe mid-century American novelist whose potboilers sold in the hundreds of millions.
13Paulo CoelhoThe Brazilian author of The Alchemist, one of the most translated books alive.
14James PattersonThe thriller writer who industrialised co-authorship and dominates airport shelves.
15Nora RobertsThe romance and suspense novelist with more than 200 titles in print.
16Jin YongThe Chinese wuxia novelist whose martial-arts epics sold hundreds of millions across Asia.
17Corín TelladoThe Spanish romance writer named by UNESCO as the most-read author in Spanish after Cervantes.
18Ryōtarō ShibaThe Japanese historical novelist whose books sold by the tens of millions at home.
Comments 1
Guinness puts her at roughly two billion copies in 44 languages, which leaves Shakespeare as the only name seriously disputing it: https://youpick.best/articles/agatha-christie-ranked-many-ways
YP
ypb-teamAug 21
