Paula Hawkins Had To Borrow Money To Write “Girl On The Train” Last Year She Made $53,000 PER DAY

ByAmy Lamareon June 21, 2018inArticles›Entertainment

Ah, it’s a dream for a writer to go from struggling journalist to writing a book, selling that book, having a film made out of that book, and sitting back and watching the money roll in. That’s what happened to Paula Hawkins, the author of The Girl On The Train . Last year she made $53,253 from book and film royalties. Does that not sound like a lot? Oh, that’s because we forgot to add that she made $53,253 PER DAY last year. The 45-year-old author went from a struggling, unknown writer to a New York Times bestselling writer nearly overnight. The Girl On The Train was then adapted into a critical and box office hit film starring Emily Blunt . Hawkins basically ticked off every box on a writer’s bucket list with this one book.

All in all, Paula Hawkins made $19.4 million in 2017. In 2016, she made $17 million. That’s a heck of a turn around for a writer who had to borrow money from her dad so that she could pay the bills, survive and finish writing the book that would make her famous.

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Her earnings are enough to make Hawkins the seventh highest paid author in the world. Oh and according to her corporation’s accounting records, she spent $16,774 on clothing and just under $3,600 on books and subscriptions.

Prior to the success of The Girl On The Train , Hawkins was a struggling financial journalist before writing four chick-lit novels under the pen name Amy Silver. Those books did not make Hawkins enough money to live on. And then she sold an unfinished novel to a publisher. The Girl On The Train was half done when her agent brokered the deal for the story about Rachel, an alcoholic commuter on a train who watches the houses she travels past and becomes obsessed with one of the couples she sees along the way.

The Girl On The Train became a 2016 film starring Emily Blunt in the role of Rachel. Justin Theroux , Lisa Kudrow , and Allison Janney had supporting roles in the film. The novel was also turned into a stage play.

Hawkins was born in Zimbabwe and got her degree at Oxford. She released her second novel Into the Water in 2017.

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