Introduction

Danielle Steel is an American professional writer with an estimated net worth of $600 Million. 

Net Worth History

Earnings History

According to reports, between 2010 and 2018, Danielle Steel earned approximately $201 million from all endeavors. She often earned substantial annual sums from book advances, film and TV rights, and royalties. This included estimated earnings of $32 million in 2010 and $35 million in 2011, which were her highest-earning years of the decade. During the 2010s, Steel’s earnings gradually declined, dropping to between $22 million and $26 million in the mid-2010s and to $12 million by 2018. 

Legal Issues & Lawsuits

In 1993, Steel filed a lawsuit against author Lorenzo Bene, who was going to disclose that her son had been adopted by her husband at the time, John Traina. California law states that adoption records must remain sealed to protect adoptive families and can only be opened under very special circumstances. Generally, the records can be disclosed for medical purposes or with the consent of the adopted child once they reach adulthood. Steel believed that if her son’s adoption went public, it would violate her family’s privacy.

Despite her arguments, the state supreme court ruled in favor of opening the adoption record, which was very unusual, as her son was still a minor at the time. Controversially, the court decided that due to Steel’s public profile, privacy standards didn’t apply to her, and therefore, they agreed that the records could be opened.

Theft By Former Assistant

In 2009, Steel was the victim of theft after her bookkeeper stole approximately $2.7 million from her. Kirsty Watts had worked for Steel for 15 years when, in November 2008, Steel discovered irregularities in the way Watts had handled credit cards and subsequently terminated her employment. An investigation later revealed that Watts had stolen the money by writing herself cheques and paying herself bonuses. She also used Steel’s credit card reward points to buy flights and gift cards for her family.

Watts was sentenced to 33 months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing over several years and agreed to surrender her assets to help repay the money. So far, she has returned the majority of what she stole, mainly through the sale of her home, its contents, and her family’s vehicles.

Real Estate

Danielle Steel and her husband, Thomas Perkins, own the Spreckles Estate in San Francisco, California. The property has a significant history behind it. It was initially split into four units before Steel acquired it and began her restoration efforts. She also reportedly purchased approximately 25 parking permits for guests in the adjoining streets.

While we don’t know precisely how much Steel paid for the home, recent estimations place its current valuation at roughly $19.2 million. Public records show that the annual property taxes amount to between $130,000 and $140,000. Over at least twenty-five years of ownership, the couple is estimated to have spent at least $2.5 million on property taxes alone. 

Introduction

Stephen King is an American author of fantasy, horror, suspense, and science fiction with an estimated net worth of $500 Million, making him one of the wealthiest authors in the world.

Earnings History

Stephen King’s reign as one of the world’s highest-paid authors initially began in the 1990s. When he first made the Forbes list in 1993, King’s estimated earnings for the year were $13 million. The following year, his income increased to $20 million, and by 1996, it had risen to $34 million. During this time, according to reports, Stephen would often command book advance fees between $15 million and $18 million. In 1997, he signed a three-book deal with Simon & Schuster, receiving a $2 million advance per book plus a 50/50 split of the profits. This was his highest-earning year of the decade, earning an estimated $50 million.

Another enormous year for Stephen King arrived in 2000, when he signed a three-book deal with Hodder & Stoughton (UK) and Simon & Schuster (US). According to reports, the agreement was valued at £30 million ($45 million), contributing the bulk of his $65 million income that year. Regarding the rest of the 2000s, King remained active, but we don’t have the specifics of his annual earnings during this time. He likely continued earning a bare minimum of $10 million per year throughout the decade.

Fast forward to 2012, and King was back on the Forbes list with annual earnings of $39 million. One of his most successful projects that year was the release of the alternate-history thriller about the JFK assassination. The book sold over 600,000 hardcover copies in its first year following release. For the rest of the 2010s, King typically earned between $15 million and $20 million annually through book advances, royalties, film rights, and audiobook sales.

According to our research, Stephen King earned a combined $374 million for the years on record from 1993 to 2018, but once you factor in the missing years, he potentially earned well over $500 million.

Book Sales

Throughout his career, King has sold over 350 million book copies worldwide, publishing 65 novels and more than 200 short stories. Many of his books have since been adapted into films, including It, The Shining, and Carrie, which have all become iconic movies in their own right.

To give you an idea of how successful Stephen’s books were, and which were likely responsible for bringing in the most amount of revenue, we’ve put together a list of his best-selling books:

1. It – 60 million copies (1986)
2. The Stand – 35 million copies (1978)
3. The Shining – 25 million copies (1977)
4. Carrie – 15 million copies (1974)
5. Misery – 15 million copies (1987)
6. Pet Sematary – 10 million copies (1983)

While most would think that The Shining was King’s most popular book, the novel It actually sold over 60 million copies globally, and has since been adapted into two separate films. The first film was based on the first half of the 1986 novel, and grossed $327 million at the box office, while the second (based on the second half) grossed $467 million.

The Shining was the quickest book to be adapted into a full-length film, starring Jack Nicholson. The film was released in 1980, just three years after the book’s publication, and it grossed approximately $50 million at the box office. While that may seem low, this was in the 1980s, and would equate to roughly $195.7 million in today’s currency.

Real Estate

In the 1980s, Stephen King purchased a 4,952-square-foot, five-bedroom, six-bathroom home in Bangor, Maine, for a reported $135,000. He has owned the property for four decades and also bought the neighboring house in 2005 for $750,000. In recent years, he reportedly vacated the home to turn it into a writer’s retreat. It’s currently valued at roughly $1.76 million.

Highlights

Here are some of the best highlights from Stephen King’s career:

• Carrie (Movie, 1976)
• The Shining (Movie, 1980)
• IT (Autobiography, 1986)
• Fantafestival (Best Screenplay, 1992) – Won
• The Shawshank Redemption (Movie, 1994)
• Primetime Emmy Awards (Outstanding Miniseries, 1997) – Nominated
• The Green Mile (Movie, 1999)
• 1408 (Movie, 2007)
• Gerald’s Game (Movie, 2017)
• 1922 (Movie, 2017)
• It (2017)
• It Chapter Two (2019)

Introduction

Edward Snowden is an American former computer intelligence consultant with an estimated net worth of $500 Thousand. 

Contractor Salary

Edward Snowden began working as an NSA contractor in 2013, under the auspices of Booz Allen Hamilton, where he earned an average annual salary of $122,000. There was some confusion in the news regarding how much Snowden earned, as he’d previously told Glenn Greenwald he was earning $200,000 per year.

Snowden later clarified that the $ 200,000-per-year figure was a career high for him. This was likely back when Snowden was with the CIA or Dell. Edward took the pay cut specifically to gain access to the NSA’s top-secret systems. He spent three years with the CIA, lasting from 2006 to 2009, which could have earned him as much as $600,000 in compensation. 

Federal Charges

In June 2013, the United States Department of Justice filed federal charges against Edward Snowden under the 1917 Espionage Act, which carries a maximum sentence of thirty years in prison. The filing lists three separate charges:

• Theft of Government Property
• Unauthorized Communication of National Defense Information
• Willful Communication of Classified Communications Intelligence Information to an Unauthorized Person

Just before the charges were filed in a Virginia court, Snowden fled to Russia from the United States. He was attempting to travel to Ecuador to seek asylum, but while in Russia, his passport was revoked by the United States government. Edward was later granted temporary asylum status in Russia, and in 2020, he secured permanent residency in the country. In September 2022, Snowden became a Russian citizen. The charges are still looming over Snowden’s head, and he has not returned to the United States since 2013. 

Book Deal & Speaking Fees

As we’ll discuss in more detail shortly, the civil lawsuit filed against Edward Snowden by the United States government revealed how he built, and subsequently forfeited, the majority of his wealth. Edward reportedly received a $4 million advance for his memoir, Permanent Record. Metropolitan Books published the 352-page autobiography in September 2019, and it quickly became a bestseller in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. In it, Snowden discussed his early life and his time working as a contractor for the CIA and NSA. But ultimately, the most popular topic he wrote about was his decision to leak classified documents related to the United States government’s mass surveillance program.

In addition, the suit also listed details regarding Snowden’s earnings from various speaking engagements he had attended between 2015 and 2019, leading up to the release of Permanent Record. Not just annual earnings, or overall earnings, but specific paychecks for individual events. This included the following:

• CLSA Event in Hong Kong – $50,000
• Kuwait Advertisement Agency – $35,000
• Portuguese Tourism Board – $32,000
• Canadian Motivational Consultancy – $30,000
• University of Colorado Boulder – $28,000
• Middlebury College in Vermont – $18,000
• Georgetown University – $12,000
• Deutsche Telekom – $10,000

In total, the filings mentioned 67 speaking engagements, totalling $1.2 million in fees. This is why, when the lawsuit below was filed, the Department of Justice sought $5.2 million to be forfeited (book advance and speaking fees combined).

Civil Lawsuit

In September 2019, after Snowden had made millions of dollars from Permanent Record and speaking engagement fees, the United States Department of Justice immediately filed a civil lawsuit against him. The suit claimed that Permanent Record violated his NDAs, as such work is subject to a review before being published. As expected, a year later, a judge ruled in favor of the DOJ, and Snowden was ordered to forfeit a total of $5.2 million in earnings from the book’s royalties, as well as any related speaking events that utilized classified information.

Real Estate

In 2012, while working at an NSA facility in Hawaii, Snowden rented a 1,559-square-foot, three-bedroom home in Waipahu. He paid $2,100 monthly to rent the property before he fled to Hong Kong. In 2013, the owner sold the house for $556,000.