The highest-paid authors of 2016

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This week's question: Who are the highest-paid authors?

"Don't quit your day job." That's the ubiquitous, dream-popping piece of advice every aspiring writer receives in his or her lifetime.

There's a caveat, though: You can go ahead and ditch that temp gig (and pop a bottle of champagne) if you manage to write a bestseller that moves more than a million copies and is picked up by Hollywood. That's the case for the newest entry on Forbes' list of the world's highest-paid authors: Paula Hawkins. Hawkins wrote last year's juggernaut, "The Girl on the Train," which set the record for the fastest-selling adult hardcover fiction debut ever.

In just a year, she went from a struggling writer in South London, borrowing money from her father to pay her bills, to selling 11 million copies worldwide and raking in $10 million. The film adaptation of "The Girl on the Train," starring Emily Blunt, comes out this fall.

Who else is on the Forbes list? There's the usual suspects — the authors that churn out one or more books per year — James Patterson, John Grisham, Nora Roberts, Danielle Steele. And you can never underestimate the power of a series: Seven of the authors on the list hit their big breaks with multi-volume sagas.

The entire list is below. Forbes estimated each author's earnings from June 2015 to June 2016, and considered book sales, movie options and other related income.

The Forbes 2016 list of highest-paid authors

1. James Patterson — $95 million

Best known for: He's a machine, sometimes producing up to 15 books per year through his "bestseller factory."

2. Jeff Kinney — $19.5 million

Best known for: "Diary of a Wimpy Kid"

3. J.K. Rowling — $19 million

Best known for: Starts with a "H," ends with an "arry Potter"

4. John Grisham — $18 million

Best known for: Legal thrillers

5. Stephen King — $15 million

Best known for: Horror and suspense

5. Danielle Steele — $15 million

Best known for: Romance

5. Nora Roberts — $15 million

Best known for: Romance

8. E.L. James — $14 million

Best known for: "Fifty Shades of Grey"

9. Veronica Roth — $10 million

Best known for: "Divergent," a post-apocalyptic young adult series

9. John Green — $10 million

Best known for: Young adult favorites like "Fault in Our Stars" and "Paper Towns"

9. Paula Hawkins — $10 million

Best known for: "The Girl on the Train"

12. George R. R. Martin — $9.5 million

Best known for: "A Song of Fire and Ice" series, better known as "Game of Thrones"

12. Rick Riordan — $9.5 million

Best known for: "Percy Jackson and the Olympians," a young adult adventure series

12. Dan Brown — $9.5 million

Best known for: "The Da Vinci Code" and all that it spawned

Several authors that made the Forbes list last year dropped off for 2016: Janet Evanovich (who churns out mysteries at break neck speeds), Suzanne Collins (of "Hunger Games" fame) and Gillian Flynn (who broke onto the scene with "Gone Girl").