Dan Brown 丹?布朗

 Royalty Income: 2.5 million yuan (US$0.39 million)

Bestsellers: "The Da Vinci Code" and "The Lost Symbol"

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Dan Brown, born in 1964, is an American writer of thriller fictions. With a strong interest in cryptography and symbols, the writer always weave elements of codes, keys, puzzles and secretive organizations into his exciting treasure-hunting stories set in a 24-hour time frame.

Brown wrote a number of books, including "Digital Fortress," "Angels & Demons," "Deception Point," "The Da Vinci Code" and "The Lost Symbol." The most famous of these is the 2003 mystery-detective novel, "The Da Vinci Code," which sold about 80 million copies by the end of 2009 in more than 40 languages. The book is named one of the most popular books of all time. His latest novel, "The Lost Symbol," sold more than 1 million copies in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada on its first day of release in 2009.