This page provides a list of
best-selling fiction authors to date and in any language. While a precise number for any given author is near impossible, the list is based on approximate numbers provided or repeated by reliable sources. "Best-selling" refers to the estimated number of copies sold of all fiction books written or co-written by an author. To keep the length of the list manageable, only authors with estimated sales of at least 100 million books are included. Authors of
comic books are not included.
For a few authors, including
Miguel de Cervantes,
Alexandre Dumas, père,
Charles Dickens (whose
A Tale of Two Cities alone has sold over 200 million copies),
Jane Austen,
Arthur Conan Doyle,
Victor Hugo,
Jules Verne,
Rick Riordan,
Jack Higgins and
Leon Uris, no exact figure could be found, although there are indications that they too have more than 100 million copies of their work in print. They have not been included in the table.