According to Forbes Stephenie Meyer is the second highest paid author earning over $40m last year.

Vampire romance author Stephenie Meyer ranks second this year. Her Twilight series has become such a juggernaut that despite not releasing a new title in 2009, she earned $40 million over the year. About $7 million of that came from movies adapted from the Twilight series. In June the third Twilight installment pulled in $175 million in its first six days, the most successful first week of any movie of 2010.

James Patterson came in top earning $70m.

The top ten list is as follows -

#1 James Patterson

#2 Stephenie Meyer

#3 Stephen King

#4 Danielle Steele

#5 Ken Follett

#6 Dean Koontz

#7 Janet Evanovich

#8 John Grisham

#9 Nicholas Sparks

#10 JK Rowling