Hosseini and Follett are global hits
14.01.09 Philip Jones writing in The Bookseller

Khaled Hosseini and Ken Follett are the most popular writers globally, according to analysis of the 2008 international fiction bestsellers published by book trade magazines including The Bookseller, Publishers Weekly and France's Livres Hebdo.

Hosseini, with two novels, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, and Follett, with World without End, are the only two writers to have books in the top 10 fiction charts of seven of the nine countries where data was captured.

Behind this international duo were Swedish writer Stieg Larsson and the US thriller writer John Grisham, both of whom charted in five countries.
When the sales rankings of individual hits are factored in Larsson becomes the second biggest selling writer internationally, behind Hosseini.
Stephenie Meyer, Muriel Barbery, J K Rowling, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, and Henning Mankell made it into the top 10 fiction lists of four countries.

In total, 387 writers featured in the top 10 fiction charts of the nine countries—France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, China, Spain, Sweden, UK and the US.
However, only 48 writers had top 10 hits in more than one territory, with fewer, just 21 authors, charting in three countries or more.

These writers, in addition to those already named, were Alan Bennett, Anna Gavalda, Christopher Paolini, David Baldacci, Elizabeth George, Jodi Picoult, Lauren Weisberger, Michael Connelly, Nicholas Sparks, Patricia Cornwall, Paulo Coelho and Valerio Manfredi.
Roberto Saviano, with Gomorra, should be added to this group, but his book is labelled as fiction in some countries and as non-fiction in others.

The international bestsellers lists are compiled by consultant Rüdiger Wischenbart, and are derived from publications including Buchreport, China Publishing Today, El Cultural, Boekblad, and Svensk Bokhandel.
GLOBAL HITS
List of authors and the number of countries they had top 10 hits in:

1 country (or more) 387 authors

2 countries 27 authors

3 countries 12 authors (Bennett, Gavalda, Paolini, Baldacci, George, Picoult, Weisberger, Connelly, Sparks, Cornwall, Coelho, Manfredi)

4 countries 5 authors (Meyer, Barbery, Zafón, Rowling, Mankell)

5 countries 2 authors (Larsson, Grisham)

7 countries 2 authors (Hosseini, Follett)

Global top 20 book bestsellers (fiction) 2008*

1 Khaled Hosseini

2 Stieg Larsson

3 Ken Follett

4 Stephenie Meyer

5 Muriel Barbery

6 Carlos Ruiz Zafón

7 Anna Gavalda

8 John Grisham

9 J K Rowling

10 Henning Mankell

11 Alan Bennett

12 Jodi Picoult

13 Christopher Paolini

14 David Baldacci

15 Nicholas Sparks

16 Elizabeth George

17 Lauren Weisberger

18 Michael Connelly

19 Patricia D. Cornwell

20 Paulo Coelho

* Ranked by chart positions on the monthly bestseller lists.