Mr. Patterson clutched the No. 7 spot on Forbes’ list after making $89 million from his best-selling books. He became the first author to surpass one million sales in electronic books in 2010, according to Guinness World Records. In 2014, he announced that would give away away $1 million of his own money to independent bookstores, according to the Associated Press. The grants to the bookstores ranged from $2,000 to $15,000. Patterson has sold more than 300 million books worldwide over the course of his career.
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