The world's best-selling fiction writer is none other than Dame Agatha Christie (née Miller, later Lady Mallowan, 1890–1976), whose 78 crime novels have sold an estimated 2 billion copies in 44 languages. Agatha Christie also wrote 19 plays, under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and six romantic novels. Royalty earnings are estimated to be worth $3.7 million per year.