Who tops the list of all-time authors?

Who is the most popular author of all time? How do you measure popularity in literature? Is it the number of people who have read a particular book or the number of books a certain author has sold?

Book earnings could be a good measure, but that wouldn’t give an accurate comparison be writers from today and centuries ago.

Then you must consider that many popular authors have maybe only written a handful of books as opposed to those you have churned out hundreds over the years.

But when it comes down to the bare facts of copies of their work sold, the names at the top of the best-selling list are not surprising.

While it’s hard to get a definitive number of units by each author which had been purchased, the list of best-selling authors gives a good overview of their popularity.

William Shakespeare tops the list, with between 2 and 4 billion copies of his works believed to have been bought. Between plays and collections of poetry, the Bard is believed to have had 42 published works.

In second place is another British writer, but one more instantly identified with a particular genre – Agatha Christie. She is also estimated to have sold between 2 and 4 billion copies of the 80 works she has had published.

The next two names on the list are surprising in one way, and not I another. Barbara Cartland and Danielle Steele are undisputed queens of the romance and are thought to have sold the best part of two billion copies of their books. Cartland is one of the most prolific authors having written over 700 books in her lifetime.

To read classic books from some of history’s most popular authors go to www.viewtale.com.