Their methodology may not track with actual earnings figures (though we understand there have been some changes to make the tally more accurate as compared to previous years) Forbes has released their new list of guesses at how much the most successful authors made over the 12 months ending June 1: James Patterson ($84 million) Danielle Steel ($35 million) Stephen King ($28 million) Janet Evanovich ($22 million) Stephenie Meyer ($21 million) Rick Riordan ($21 million) Dean Koontz ($19 million) John Grisham ($18 million) Jeff Kinney ($17 million) Nicholas Sparks ($16 million) Forbes
