just scrolled through a ranking of the world's richest author and honestly some of these numbers are wild. like jk rowling hit a billion dollars net worth—first author ever to do that apparently. the harry potter franchise really was a different level of money maker. but then you've got grant cardone at 1.6 billion which somehow feels even crazier because he's more business guy than novelist? james patterson's up there too with 800 million from writing over 140 books since the 70s. stephen king and danielle steel both at 500 million. what's interesting is it's not just novelists—cartoonists like the guy behind garfield and simpsons made massive amounts too. makes you wonder how many of these fortunes come from the actual writing versus the movie deals and merchandising. the book business hits different when you're at that level i guess