( EW.com ) -- E.L. James ' ought to revise the title of her publishing juggernaut , 50 Shades of Grey , to 50 Shades of cold hard cash . After all , the author raked in an estimated $ 95 million this year , making her the world 's top-earning author , according to Forbes . Rounding out the top five on Forbes ' list are familiar names of the crime , fantasy , conservative pundit , and romance genres . In a close second place is James Patterson , earning $ 91 million , followed by Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins with $ 55 million , Bill O'Reilly with $ 28 million , and No . 5 is prolific romance author Danielle Steel with $ 26 million . Forbes culled these estimated numbers from sales data available from June 2012 to June 2013 . Much lower on Forbes ' list were No . 15 J.K. Rowling with earnings estimates of $ 13 million for her adult fiction releases The Casual Vacancy and The Cuckoo 's Calling , and No . 16 George R.R . Martin with $ 12 million , though he was the best-selling paperback author of 2012 . Let 's see if these publishing and e-book sales for James translate to box-office green with next summer 's 50 Shades movie . See the original story at EW.com . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved .
`` 50 Shades of Grey '' has been good to its author . E.L. James raked in an estimated $ 95 million this year . Comment: