E.L. James was named the highest earning author by Forbes, beating the likes of James Patterson and Suzanne Collins. She earned a total of $95 million in 12 months.

Thanks to the erotic novel "Fifty Shades of Grey", author E.L James can add another accomplishment to her kitty. James has been crowned the highest earning author in the last 12 months with total earnings of $95 million by Forbes magazine

Sales of all three books in the "Fifty Shades" series worldwide have topped 60 million copies, including 11 million in the U.K. and 16 million in the U.S., according to Nielsen BookScan, the official book charts company.

"Big bestsellers are now more rewarding for authors than even 10 years ago because there are so many more options - there are TV rights, film rights, subsidiary rights and translation rights. The world is more connected and the rewards are larger and more diverse for brand authors," Philip Jones, editor of book industry magazine The Bookseller, said. A film adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey, to be directed by the visual artist Sam Taylor-Wood, who made the film Nowhere Boy, opens in cinemas worldwide on 1 August 2014.

James Patterson was named the second highest-earning author, earning a total of $91 million and "The Hunger Games" author Suzanne Collins came in at number 3, making $55m.

The rest of the list included

4. Bill O'Reilly - Earnings: $28 million

5. Danielle Steel - Earning: $26 million

6. Jeff Kinney - Earning: $24 million

7. Janet Evanovich - Earning: $24 million

8. Nora Roberts - Earning: $23 million

9. Dan Brown - Earning: $22 million

10. Stephen King - Earning: $20 million

11. Dean Koontz - Earning: $20 million

12. John Grisham - Earning: $18 million

13. David Baldacci - Earning: $15 million

14. Rick Riordan - Earning: $14 million

15. J.K. Rowling - Earning: $13 million

16. George R.R. Martin - Earning: $12 million