Nora Roberts interview on CBS

Kayne · Joined: 31 Mar 2007 Posts: 795

CBS Sunday Morning had an interview on Nora Roberts. It showed her home where she works as well as the Inn she restored. I am not sure if I heard correctly but I think it said she makes $60 million per year.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7422708n

Eliza · Joined: 21 Aug 2011 Posts: 744

Thanks for the link. Here are some interesting things I found while trying to pin down the 60 million for Nora with no luck.

Forbes estimated Rowling’s net worth at US $1 billion.... Some other wealthy authors include Danielle Steel ($610 million), Stephen King ($400 million), Tom Clancy ($300 million), James Patterson ($250 million), John Grisham ($200), Barbara Taylor Bradford (approx. $200 million), Nora Roberts ($150 million), Stephenie Meyer ($125 million), and Dan Brown ($100 million). This was for 2011.

Danielle Steel, who holds the record for the most consecutive weeks on the New York Times bestseller list...

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary for an author, including novelists, is $55,420 a year as of May, 2011. More than 10,000 aspiring and professional writers belong to the Romance Writers of America, but less than 20 percent of them have published a book.

JulieR · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 181

An interesting interview. As I watched, I kept wondering who she reminded me of -- her voice, especially, was not what I expected, much more gravelly. I finally figured out that she has a "smoker's voice" like my grandmother had. I don't know if Nora actually smokes (or smoked) but many of her early characters did.
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JulieR

Bonnie · Joined: 31 Jul 2007 Posts: 37

Kayne · Joined: 31 Mar 2007 Posts: 795

Eliza · Joined: 21 Aug 2011 Posts: 744

Here is a link to the Bureau of Labor Statistics for writers of all kinds and not just romance novelists: http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes273043.htm#ind

It does include movie writers but not novelists' movie rights. It doesn't even break down the list by novelists alone, never mind romance novelists, so I guess the article I quoted used the "50% median annual wage" number for his average income. The $55,000+ figure is for just 40,930 people.

It's all broken down so many different ways--highest levels of employment, highest concentration of employment, top paying industries for this occupation, and even geographically. Probably far more than you ever wanted to know.

Kayne · Joined: 31 Mar 2007 Posts: 795

Wow, Thanks for sharing the link. The amount of data it shows is amazing. I don't know if I understand all of the statistics.