The average earnings of an author in Australia is about $13,000. But if you're James Patterson you earn a wee bit more. According to Forbes magazine he was the highest-earning author last year, raking in $US95 million ($A125 million). Here's the full list: James Patterson $95 million; Jeff Kinney $19.5m; J.K. Rowling $19m; John Grisham $18m; Stephen King $15m; Danielle Steel $15m; Nora Roberts $15m; E.L. James $14m; Veronica Roth $10m; John Green $10m; Paula Hawkins $10m; George R.R. Martin $9.5m; Dan Brown $9.5m; Rick Riordan $9.5m. Mind you, Patterson does have a virtual factory where he churns out books with co-writers. Let's hope they got a decent cut.

The underground and Oprah

No one ever doubted that Oprah Winfrey had clout. When she told the publisher of Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railway she wanted to select the book for her book club she also asked for publication to be secretly brought forward by a month. And getting the nod from the big O meant significantly increasing the print run. All this was explained by The Wall Street Journal, which detailed how Doubleday upped the number of printed copies from 75,000 to 200,000 and shifted publication to this month. The book, which is published by Hachette in Australia, is about a young slave escaping a plantation in the Deep South in 1850.

If it's Wednesday, it's Rai Gaita

Raimond Gaita's Wednesday lecture series is under way again, with this year's theme being The Fragility of the Idea of A Common Humanity. The lectures will explore "what sustains and what erodes the idea of a common humanity and, more radically, whether it is a useful idea with which to think about the moral, legal and political relations between people and peoples". On August 10, Gaita will address the theme, A Common Humanity being the title of one of his best-known books. Other lecturers include Karen Hitchcock (Seeing the Old, the Weak and the Afflicted), Dianne Otto (Gender and Sexual Diversity: A Question of Humanity), Philomena Murray (The European Union: Beacon of Hope or a Values Commodity in Crisis?), and Maria Tumarkin (Svetlana Alexievich Didn't Make it to the Royal Commission: The Dramas of Non-Witnessing). The lectures are held at the University of Melbourne in the public lecture theatre of the Old Arts Building. alumni.online.unimelb.edu.au

Crime and the big short ... list

This month is crime awards month, with the Crime Writers Association's Ned Kellys and Sisters in Crime's Davitts being announced.

Over the years it is fair to say there has been occasional tension between the two crime-writing bodies so it's great that the ACWA will this year give its lifetime achievement Ned to Carmel Shute, national co-convener of the Sisters for "25 years supporting and nurturing Australian women crime writers".

The shortlists for the Neds, to be presented on August 28 as part of Melbourne Writers Festival, are: Fiction: Mark Dapin (R&R); Garry Disher (The Heat); Candice Fox (Fall); Adrian McKinty (Rain Dogs); Barry Maitland (Ash Island) and Dave Warner (Before it Breaks). True Crime: Gideon Haigh (Certain Admissions); Kate Kyriacou (The Sting); Martin McKenzie-Murray (A Murder Without Motive); Rebecca Poulson (Killing Love) and Mark Tedeschi (Kidnapped). First fiction: Tania Chandler (Please Don't Leave Me Here); J.M. Green (Good Money); Mark Hollands (Amplify); Gary Kemble (Skin Deep); Iain Ryan (Four Days), and Emma Viskic (Resurrection Bay). austcrimewriters.com

The shortlists for the Davitts, to be presented by guest of honour Liane Moriarty on August 27, are: Fiction: Anne Buist (Medea's Curse); Candice Fox (Fall); Sulari Gentill (Give the Devil His Due); Bronwyn Parry (Storm Clouds); J.M. Peace (Time to Run) and Emma Viskic (Resurrection Bay). Non-Fiction: Carol Baxter (Black Widow); Cheryl Critchley & Helen McGrath (Why Did They Do It?); Kate Kyriacou (The Sting); Alecia Simmonds (Wildman); Sue Smetherst (Behind Closed Doors) and Sofija Stefanovic (You're Just Too Good to Be True). Debut:  Kathryn Barker (In the Skin of a Monster); Anne Buist (Medea's Curse); Tania Chandler (Please Don't Leave Me Here); Caroline de Costa (Double Madness); Fleur Ferris (Risk); J.M. Green (Good Money); J.M. Peace (Time to Run); Ann Turner (The Lost Swimmer); Emma Viskic (Resurrection Bay). The Sisters also have a Davitt for young-adult novels and children's novels. sistersincrime.org.au