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Harry Potter‘s JK Rowling is highest-earning author of 2017

Harry Potter author JK Rowling topped the Forbes' highest earning author list of 2017.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling topped the Forbes' highest earning author list of 2017. Photo: Getty

JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books series has been named the world’s most highly paid author with earnings of $US95 million ($A120 million) in 2017.

The British writer beat the likes of Dan Brown, Stephen King and John Grisham to top Forbes‘ magazine list of the 10 highest earners in the global industry for the first time in almost 10 years.

The announcement comes soon after her legions of worldwide fans celebrated the 20th anniversary of her first instalment of the boy wizard series.

She has written a further six Harry Potter titles, which have been turned into eight blockbuster feature films, and she last year made her screenwriting debut with a prequel movie, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them.

It was announced on Wednesday that the smash-hit stage play Harry Potter And The Cursed Child will move to Broadway next year.

The mother of three, 52, first began writing about the wizarding world while struggling to make ends meet living as a single mother on benefits in Edinburgh.

The books’ popularity soon made her a multimillionaire and she has since released several other novels, founded children’s charity Lumos, and amassed more than 11 million Twitter followers keen to keep track of her regularly shared thoughts on political and social issues.

Aside from Rowling, the US business magazine’s list also includes British authors Paula Hawkins and EL James — whose respective novels The Girl On The Train and 50 Shades Of Grey have both been turned into major movies in recent years — while the others are all American.

List organisers added that Game Of Thrones creator George RR Martin, The Fault In Our Stars writer John Green and Divergent trilogy author Veronica Roth just failed to make the top 10.

The 2017 list

1. JK Rowling (Harry Potter) – $US95 million
2. James Patterson (Women’s Murder Club) – $US87 million
3. Jeff Kinney (Diary Of A Wimpy Kid) – $US21 million
4. Dan Brown (The Da Vinci Code) – $US20 million
5. Stephen King (The Dark Tower) – $US15 million
6. John Grisham (The Innocent Man) – $US14 million
7. Nora Roberts (Year One) – $US14 million
8. Paula Hawkins (The Girl On The Train) – $US13 million
9. EL James (Fifty Shades Of Grey) – $11.5 million
10= Danielle Steel (The Duchess) – $US11 million
10= Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson & the Olympians series) – $US11 million

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