This is a list of best-selling fiction authors to date, in any language. While finding precise sales numbers for any given author is nearly impossible, the list is based on approximate numbers provided or repeated by reliable sources. "Best selling" refers to the estimated number of copies sold of all fiction books written or co-written by an author. To keep the list manageable, only authors with estimated sales of at least 100 million are included. Authors of comic books are not included unless they have been published in book format (for example, comic albums, manga tankōbon volumes, trade paperbacks, or graphic novels).
Authors such as Jane Austen, Miguel de Cervantes, Alexandre Dumas, Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, Victor Hugo, Jules Verne, Rick Riordan, Ernest Hemingway, Jack Higgins, Isaac Asimov and Leon Uris have not been included in the table because no exact figures could be found—although there are indications that they too have more than 100 million copies of their work in print.[ citation needed ]
Estimates come from different years and are therefore not directly comparable.
Author | Min. estimated sales | Max. estimated sales | Original language | Genre and/or major works | Number of books | Nationality |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
William Shakespeare | 2 billion [1] | 4 billion [2] | English | Plays and poetry, e.g. Romeo and Juliet , Macbeth , and Hamlet | 42 | British |
Agatha Christie | 2 billion [3] | 4 billion [2] | English | Whodunits, including the Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot series | 86 | British |
Barbara Cartland | 500 million [4] | 1 billion [5] | English | Romance | 723 | British |
Danielle Steel | 500 million [6] | 800 million [7] | English | General fiction, romance | 179 | American |
Harold Robbins | 750 million [8] | 750 million [9] | English | Adventure | 23 | American |
Georges Simenon | 500 million [10] | 700 million [11] | French | Detectives, Maigret , romans durs | 570 | Belgian |
Enid Blyton | 600 million [12] | English | Children's literature, Noddy , The Famous Five , The Secret Seven | 800 | British | |
J. K. Rowling | 600 million [13] | 600 million [13] | English | young adult, fantasy, crime fiction , including the Harry Potter series | 22 | British |
Sidney Sheldon | 370 million [14] | 600 million [15] | English | Suspense | 21 | American |
Eiichiro Oda | 516.6 million [16] | 523.2 million [c] | Japanese | Manga, One Piece | 106 | Japanese |
Gilbert Patten | 125 million [26] | 500 million [27] | English | Adolescent adventures | 209 | American |
Tom Clancy | 100 Million [28] | English | Espionage, Thriller, Jack Ryan | 19 | American | |
Dr. Seuss | 100 million [29] | 500 million [30] | English | Children's literature | 44 | American |
Akira Toriyama | 298 million [f] | 438 million [f] | Japanese | Manga, Dr. Slump , Dragon Ball , Dragon Ball Super | 66 | Japanese |
Leo Tolstoy | 413 million [33] | Russian | War and Peace , Anna Karenina | 48 | Russian | |
Corín Tellado | 400 million [34] | 400 million [35] | Spanish | Romance | 4,000 | Spanish |
Dean Koontz | 325 million [36] | 400 million [37] | English | Horror, thriller, science fiction, fantasy | 91 | American |
Jackie Collins | 400 million [38] | 500 million [39] | English | Romance | 32 | British |
Horatio Alger | 200 million [40] | 400 million [41] | English | Dime novels | 135 | American |
Nora Roberts | 145 million [42] | 400 million [43] | English | Romance | 200+ | American |
R. L. Stine | 100 million [44] | 400 million [45] | English | Goosebumps series, Fear Street series, horror, comedy | 430+ | American |
Alexander Pushkin | 357 million [33] | Russian | Plays, poetry, prose, Eugene Onegin | 17 | Russian | |
Stephen King | 300 million [46] | 400 million [47] | English | Horror, science fiction, fantasy, It , The Shining , The Stand , Pet Sematary , Salem's Lot , The Green Mile | 77 | American |
Paulo Coelho | 225 million [48] | 350 million [49] | Portuguese | The Alchemist | 28 | Brazilian |
Jirō Akagawa | 300 million [50] | 330 million [51] | Japanese | Mystery | 500+ | Japanese |
Jeffrey Archer | 250 million [52] | 330 million [53] | English | Saga, thriller, short stories, Kane and Abel , The Clifton Chronicles | 33 | British |
Louis L'Amour | 230 million [54] | 330 million [55] | English | Western | 101 | American |
René Goscinny | 325 million [56] | French | Franco-Belgian comics, Asterix , Lucky Luke , Iznogoud | 108 | French | |
Erle Stanley Gardner | 100 million [57] | 325 million [58] | English | Mystery, Perry Mason | 140 | American |
Edgar Wallace | 300 million [59] | English | Detective | 175 | British | |
Janet Dailey | 300 million [60] | 300 million [61] | English | Romance | 93 | American |
Jin Yong | 100 million [62] | 300 million [63] [64] | Chinese | Wuxia | 15 | Chinese |
Robert Ludlum | 110 million [65] | 290 million [66] | English | Espionage, Jason Bourne | 40 | American |
Osamu Tezuka | 276 million [67] | Japanese | Manga, Astro Boy , Black Jack , Buddha | 62 | Japanese | |
James Patterson | 400 million [68] | English | Thriller, Alex Cross Maximum Ride | 400+ | American | |
Frédéric Dard | 200 million [69] | 270 million [70] | French | Detective, San Antonio | 300 | French |
Stan and Jan Berenstain | 200 million [71] | 260 million [72] | English | Berenstain Bears | 300+ | American |
Roald Dahl | 200 million [73] | 250 million [74] | English | Children's literature | 50 | British |
John Grisham | 100 million [75] | 250 million [76] | English | Legal thriller | 35 | American |
Zane Grey | 250 million [77] | English | Western | American | ||
Irving Wallace | 250 million [78] | English | Suspense | American | ||
J. R. R. Tolkien | 200 million [79] | 250 million [80] | English | The Lord of the Rings , The Hobbit , classical fantasy | 36 | British |
Masashi Kishimoto | 250 million [81] | 250 million [82] | Japanese | Manga, Naruto | 72 | Japanese |
Gosho Aoyama | 250 million [83] | 250 million [84] | Japanese | Manga, Detective Conan | 100 | Japanese |
Karl May | 100 million [85] | 200 million [86] | German | Western, adventure | 80 | German |
Mickey Spillane | 100 million [87] | 200 million [88] | English | Detective, Mike Hammer | American | |
C. S. Lewis | 100 million [89] | 200 million [90] | English | The Chronicles of Narnia , fantasy, popular theology | 38 | British |
Kyotaro Nishimura | 200 million [91] | Japanese | Mystery | 400+ | Japanese | |
Mitsuru Adachi | 200 million [92] | Japanese | Manga, Touch , H2 , Slow Step , Miyuki , Cross Game | Japanese | ||
Rumiko Takahashi | 200 million [92] | Japanese | Manga Urusei Yatsura , Ranma ½ , Inuyasha , Maison Ikkoku , Rin-ne | Japanese | ||
Dan Brown | 200 million | 200 million [93] | English | Thriller, Robert Langdon | 7 [94] | American |
Alistair MacLean | 150 million [95] | 200 million [96] | English | Adventure, thriller, war stories | 32 | British |
Ann M. Martin | 172 million [97] | 180 million [98] | English | The Baby-sitters Club | 335 | American |
Ryōtarō Shiba | 180 million [99] | Japanese | Historical | 350 | Japanese | |
Arthur Hailey | 150 million [100] | 170 million [101] | English | Thriller | 11 | British/Canadian |
Astrid Lindgren | 100 million [102] | 165 million [103] | Swedish | Children's literature | 100 | Swedish |
Koyoharu Gotouge | 150 million [104] | 150 million [105] | Japanese | Manga, Demon Slayer | 23 | Japanese |
Anne Rice | 150 million | 150 million+ [106] | English | Gothic fiction, vampires, Interview with the Vampire ( The Vampire Chronicles ) The Witching Hour ( Lives of the Mayfair Witches ) | 40 | American |
Gérard de Villiers | 150 million [107] | French | Detectives, SAS | 170 | French | |
Beatrix Potter | 100 million [108] | 250 million [109] | English | Peter Rabbit | 23 | British |
Michael Crichton | 150 million [110] | 150 million [111] | English | Techno thriller | 25 | American |
Richard Scarry | 100 million [112] | 150 million [113] | English | Illustrated children's books | 300+ | American |
Clive Cussler | 40 million [114] | 150 million [115] | English | Adventure, Dirk Pitt | 37 | American |
Ken Follett | 90 million [116] | 150 million [117] | English | Spy thriller, historical thriller | 30 | British |
Debbie Macomber | 60 million [118] | 140 million [119] | English | Romance | American | |
Naoki Urasawa | 140 million [120] | Japanese | Manga | Japanese | ||
E.L. James | 100 million | 125 million | English | Fifty Shades of Grey | 7 | British |
Carter Brown | 100 million [121] | 120 million [122] | English | Detective | Australian | |
Tite Kubo | 120 million [123] | Japanese | Manga, Bleach | 74 | Japanese | |
Eiji Yoshikawa | 120 million [124] | Japanese | Musashi | 7 | Japanese | |
Hajime Isayama | 120 million | 120 million [125] | Japanese | Manga, Attack on Titan | 34 | Japanese |
Catherine Cookson | 100 million [126] | 120 million [127] | English | Romance | 103 | British |
Stephenie Meyer | 100 million [128] | 116 million [129] | English | The Twilight Saga , The Host , romance | 6 | American |
Norman Bridwell | 100 million [130] | 110 million [131] | English | Clifford the Big Red Dog | 80 | American |
David Baldacci | 110 million [132] | English | Thriller | 25 | American | |
Nicholas Sparks | 90 million [133] | 105 million [134] | English | Romance | 22 | American |
Hirohiko Araki | 120 million | 120 million [135] | Japanese | Manga, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure | 131 | Japanese |
Evan Hunter | 100 million [136] | 100 million [137] | English | Detective (Ed McBain) | 94 | American |
Andrew Neiderman | 100 million [138] | 100 million [139] | English | V. C. Andrews, The Devil's Advocate | 60 | American |
Roger Hargreaves | 100 million [140] | 100 million [141] | English | Children's literature, Mr. Men | British | |
Robin Cook | 100 million [142] | 100 million [143] | English | Medical thriller Coma | 27 | American |
Wilbur Smith | 80 million [144] | 100 million [145] | English | African adventure | 32 | South African/British |
Erskine Caldwell | 80 million [146] | 100 million [147] | English | Literature | 25 | American |
Judith Krantz | 80 million [148] | 100 million [149] | English | Romance | 12 | American |
Eleanor Hibbert | 100 million [150] | 100 million [151] | English | Romance, historical, suspense | 200 | British |
Lewis Carroll | 100 million [152] | English | Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , absurdist literature | 5 | British | |
Denise Robins | 100 million [153] | English | Romance | 200 | British | |
Cao Xueqin | 100 million [154] | Chinese | Dream of the Red Chamber | Chinese | ||
Ian Fleming | 100 million [155] | 100 million [156] | English | James Bond | 14 | British |
Hermann Hesse | 100 million [157] | 100 million [158] | German | Steppenwolf , Siddhartha , The Glass Bead Game | 45 | German-Swiss |
Rex Stout | 100 million [159] | 100 million [160] | English | Nero Wolfe | 50 | American |
Anne Golon | 100 million [161] | 100 million [162] | French | Angélique | 14 | French |
Frank G. Slaughter | 100 million [163] | English | Medical | 62 | American | |
Edgar Rice Burroughs | 100 million [164] | 100 million [165] | English | Tarzan , Barsoom and Pellucidar series, science fantasy | American | |
John Creasey | 100 million [166] | English | Crime thriller | 600 | British | |
James A. Michener | 100 million [167] | English | Historical | 47 | American | |
Yasuo Uchida | 100 million [168] | Japanese | Mystery | 130+ | Japanese | |
Seiichi Morimura | 100 million [168] | Japanese | Mystery | 350+ | Japanese | |
Mary Higgins Clark | 100 million [169] | 100 million [170] | English | Thriller | American | |
Penny Jordan | 90 million [171] | 100 million [172] | English | Romance | 200+ | British |
Patricia Cornwell | 100 million [173] | English | Thriller, Kay Scarpetta series | 34+ | American | |
Terry Pratchett | 122 million | 122 million | English | Discworld and others | 50+ | British |
A comic book, comic-magazine or simply 'comic', is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and written narrative, usually dialogue contained in word balloons emblematic of the comics art form.
Manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term manga is used in Japan to refer to both comics and cartooning. Outside of Japan, the word is typically used to refer to comics originally published in Japan.
Weekly Shōnen Jump is a weekly shōnen manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many action scenes and a fair amount of comedy. Chapters of the series that run in Weekly Shōnen Jump are collected and published in tankōbon volumes under the Jump Comics imprint every two to three months. It is one of the longest-running manga magazines, with the first issue being released with a cover date of August 1, 1968.
Eiichiro Oda is a Japanese manga artist and the creator of the series One Piece. With more than 516.6 million tankōbon copies in circulation worldwide, One Piece is both the best-selling manga in history and the best-selling comic series printed in volume, in turn making Oda one of the best-selling fiction authors. The series' popularity resulted in Oda being named one of the manga artists that changed the history of manga.
One Piece is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump since July 1997, with its chapters compiled in 110 tankōbon volumes as of November 2024. The series follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, as he explores the Grand Line in search of the mythical treasure known as the "One Piece" to become the next King of the Pirates.
Slam Dunk is a Japanese sports manga series written and illustrated by Takehiko Inoue. It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from October 1990 to June 1996, with the chapters collected into 31 tankōbon volumes. The story follows a basketball team from Shōhoku High School, located in the Shōnan area of Japan.
Bleach is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tite Kubo. It follows the adventures of a teenager Ichigo Kurosaki, who obtains the powers of a Soul Reaper—a death personification similar to a Grim Reaper—from another Soul Reaper, Rukia Kuchiki. His new-found powers allow him to take on the duties of defending humans from evil spirits and guiding departed souls to the afterlife, and set him on journeys to various ghostly realms of existence.
The Pokémon Graphic Novel, more commonly known as Pokémon: The Electric Tale of Pikachu, is a Japanese manga series created by Toshihiro Ono. It was serialized in the children's manga magazine Bessatsu CoroCoro Comic Special and CoroCoro Comic from April 1997 to December 1999. Individual chapters were collected into four tankōbon volumes by Shogakukan, who released the first volume on October 28, 1997 and the fourth volume on January 28, 2000. The characters and storylines are all drawn from the Pokémon anime series, although some events and depictions of characters diverge slightly from the anime, and the world itself has a visibly higher level of technology.
A bestseller is a book or other media noted for its top selling status, with bestseller lists published by newspapers, magazines, and book store chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and specialties. An author may also be referred to as a bestseller if their work often appears in a list. Well-known bestseller lists in the U.S. are published by Publishers Weekly, USA Today, The New York Times, and IndieBound. The New York Times tracks book sales from national and independent bookstores, as well as sales from major internet retailers such as Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.
A light novel is a type of popular literature novel native to Japan, usually classified as young adult fiction, generally targeting teens to twenties. The definition is very vague, and wide-ranging.
Dragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The initial manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 individual chapters collected in 42 tankōbon volumes by its publisher Shueisha. Dragon Ball was originally inspired by the classical 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, combined with elements of Hong Kong martial arts films. Dragon Ball characters also use a variety of East Asian martial arts styles, including karate and Wing Chun. The series follows the adventures of protagonist Son Goku from his childhood through adulthood as he trains in martial arts. He spends his childhood far from civilization until he meets a teen girl named Bulma, who encourages him to join her quest in exploring the world in search of the seven orbs known as the Dragon Balls, which summon a wish-granting dragon when gathered. Along his journey, Goku makes several other friends, becomes a family man, discovers his alien heritage, and battles a wide variety of villains, many of whom also seek the Dragon Balls.
Kuroko's Basketball is a Japanese sports manga series written and illustrated by Tadatoshi Fujimaki. It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 2008 to September 2014, with its chapters collected in 30 tankōbon volumes. It tells the story of a high school basketball team trying to make it to the national tournament.
A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to publish in the future. First-time novelists without a previous published reputation, such as publication in nonfiction, magazines, or literary journals, typically struggle to find a publisher.
Seraph of the End is a Japanese dark fantasy manga series written by Takaya Kagami and illustrated by Yamato Yamamoto, with storyboards by Daisuke Furuya. The series is set in a world that allegedly comes to an end at the hands of a "human-made" virus, ravaging the global populace and leaving only children under the age of thirteen untouched. It is at this time that vampires emerge from the recesses of the earth, likely followed by age-old horrors of the dark thought only to be myth. A young man named Yūichirō Hyakuya joins a vampire extermination unit to avenge the deaths of his orphaned family and reclaim his childhood best friend Mikaela Hyakuya from the vampires. It started publishing in Shueisha's Jump SQ in September 2012.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Koyoharu Gotouge. It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from February 2016 to May 2020, with its chapters collected in 23 tankōbon volumes. It has been published in English by Viz Media and simultaneously on the Manga Plus platform by Shueisha. It follows teenage Tanjiro Kamado, who joins the Demon Slayer Corps after his family is slaughtered and the sole survivor, his younger sister Nezuko, is turned into a demon, in the hopes of turning her human again and defeating the demon king Muzan Kibutsuji.
Jujutsu Kaisen is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Gege Akutami. It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from March 2018 to September 2024, with its chapters collected in 28 tankōbon volumes as of October 2024. The story follows high school student Yuji Itadori as he joins a secret organization of Jujutsu Sorcerers to eliminate a powerful Curse named Ryomen Sukuna, of whom Yuji becomes the host. Jujutsu Kaisen is a sequel to Akutami's Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School, serialized in Shueisha's Jump Giga from April to July 2017, later collected in a tankōbon volume, retroactively titled as Jujutsu Kaisen 0, in December 2018.
Christie sold more than two billion books, translated into 103 languages. Only the Bible and Shakespeare's works are said to have sold more.
Christie wrote 80 detective novels mostly featuring Poirot or Marple and it has been suggested that only the Bible and Shakespeare's canon have outsold an estimated 4 billion copies of her books.
Shueisha announced on Thursday that Eiichiro Oda's One Piece manga has surpassed 500 million copies published worldwide as of the release of the manga's 103rd compiled book volume on the same day. 416,566,000 of those copies are in Japan, and 100 million copies are in 60 countries and territories outside of Japan.
890,494
296,118
113,968
60,635
36,136
Without rival, the twentieth century's king of the genre is Louis Cha. Estimates of his book sales reach up to 300 million copies. One editor at the Far Eastern Economic Review estimated that, if one also counted the pirated copies, over 1 billion of Cha's books have been sold. His fourteen novels have been adapted into countless comic books, television shows, and films.
Black Jack Osamu Tezuka [...] 176 million [...] Astro Boy Osamu Tezuka [...] 100 million
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