Question: How many years was the authors married who wrote the best-selling book series that has been criticized for its perceived saccharine tone and formulaic storytelling ?

text: List of best-selling books
List of best-selling book series -- More than 100 million copies

This page provides lists of best-selling individual books and book series to date and in any language. Best selling refers to the estimated number of copies sold of each book, rather than the number of books printed or currently owned. Comics and textbooks are not included in this list. The books are listed according to the highest sales estimate as reported in reliable, independent sources. This list is incomplete because there are many books, such as The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, or A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, that are commonly cited as best-selling books yet have no reliable sales figures. Similarly, many notable book series that sold very widely are poorly documented (Land of Oz) or consist of multiple sub-series (Tom Swift). According to Guinness World Records as of 1995, the Bible is the best-selling book of all time, with an estimated 5 billion copies sold and distributed. The Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung, also known as the Little Red Book, has produced a wide array of sales and distribution figures - with estimates ranging from 800 million to over 6.5 billion printed volumes, with some claiming the distribution ran into the billions and some citing over a billion official volumes between 1966 and 1969 alone as well as untold numbers of unofficial local reprints and unofficial translations. Exact print figures for these and other books may also be missing or unreliable since these kinds of books may be produced by many different and unrelated publishers, in some cases over many centuries. All books of a religious, ideological, philosophical or political nature have thus been excluded from the below lists of best-selling books for these reasons. Having sold more than 500 million copies worldwide, Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling is the best-selling book series in history. The first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, has sold in excess of 120 million copies, making it one of the best-selling books of all time.
Book series Author ( s ) Original language No . of installments First published Approximate sales
Harry Potter J. K. Rowling English 7 + 8 supplements 1997-present 500 million
Goosebumps R. L. Stine English 62 + spin-off series 1992-present 350 million
Perry Mason Erle Stanley Gardner English 82 + 4 short stories 1933-1973 300 million
Berenstain Bears Stan and Jan Berenstain English over 300 1962-present 260 million
Choose Your Own Adventure Various authors English 185 1979-1998 250 million
Sweet Valley High Francine Pascal and ghostwriters English 400 1983-2003 250 million
Noddy Enid Blyton English 24 1949-present 200 million
Nancy Drew Various authors as Carolyn Keene English 175 1930-present 200 million
The Railway Series Rev . W. Awdry , Christopher Awdry English 42 1945-2011 200 million
San-Antonio Frédéric Dard French 173 1949-2001 200 million
Robert Langdon Dan Brown English 5 2000-present 200 million
Diary of a Wimpy Kid Jeff Kinney English 14 + 4 Spin-offs 2007-present 200 million
The Baby-sitters Club Ann Martin English 335 1986-present 172 million
Star Wars Various authors English over 300 1977-present 160 million
Little Critter Mercer Mayer English over 200 1975-present 150 million
Peter Rabbit Beatrix Potter English 6 1902-1930 150 million
Fifty Shades E. L. James English 3 2011-2015 150 million
American Girl Various authors English 141 + spin-off series 1986-present 140 million
Geronimo Stilton Elisabetta Dami and ghostwriters Italian over 200 2000-present 140 million
Chicken Soup for the Soul Jack Canfield , Mark Victor Hansen English 105 1997-present 130 million