J.K. Rowling  J.K. 羅琳

 Royalty Income: 9 million yuan (US$1.42 million)

Bestseller: the "Harry Potter" series

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Born in 1956, J.K. Rowling, or Joanne "Jo" Rowling, is a British writer rising to fame with her amazingly popular "Harry Potter" fantasy series. The series sold more than 400 million copies in 64 languages worldwide, and won numerous awards amid global acclaim. The writer, who once lived on government welfare, is the first person in the world to become a billionaire (in U.S. dollars) by writing books, according to Forbes.

Rowling, who conceived the Potter stories in 1990, wrote the first book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" over five years, and finally got it published in 1997. After the initial success of the first book, she then wrote six sequels from 1998 to 2007, all of which also took the world by storm. The film series adapted from the seven-book series yielded high box office returns and critical acclaim internationally.