Yang Hongying 楊紅櫻

 Royalty Income: 11 million yuan (US$ 1.73 million)

Best seller: "Mo's Mischief" series, known in Chinese as "Naughty Boy Ma Xiaotiao"

Buy it on Amazon.com

Born in 1962 in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, Yang Hongying is one of the most popular contemporary Chinese writers of children's literature. Once a primary school teacher, Yang is able to create stories that capture children's hearts. Her most famous books include "Girls' Diary", "Boys' Diary", "Pretty Teacher and Naughty Boys", "Mo's Mischief" and "Diaries of the Smiling Cat". Her "Mo's Mischief" series focus on the humorous stories and adventures of the major protagonist Mo Shen Ma, a naughty but helpful Chinese primary school boy. Her books have sold more than 30 million copies, with the "Mo's Mischief" series, which was first published in 2003, selling more than 16 million copies alone. Yang topped the 2010 list with a royalty income of 25 million yuan (US$ 3.94 million).

Mo's official website: http://www.cfanim.cn/mxt.html

Excerpts from Chapter One: A Very Special Mom of "Mo's Mischief: Best Mom Ever":

As soon as Mo got home from school, he wrote the title of his essay at the top of a clean piece of paper: "My Family Is Special."

But what could he write about?

There would be plenty of things to write about his father, who was definitely not like an average dad. But Mo couldn't write about his father, because his father was already a celebrity at the school. Everyone in school knew about Mo's father.

Whenever Mo got into trouble, Mr. Ma would come to school driving his custom-built SUV—the only car of its kind in the world. And it wasn't just his car that made him famous. Whenever he came to school, Mo's dad got himself into all kinds of hilarious situations. Stories about Mo's dad kept teachers and students entertained all year. Like the time he tried to drive his car through the school playground during a fire drill, or the time he came to school wearing his Grumpy costume after his office skit of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Then there was the time when he came into school wanting to try out the robot toys he was designing for his company, but the robot toys went completely out of control! No, Mo certainly couldn't write anything about his father for this essay.

Then Mo had an idea! He decided he would write about his mother. Ms. Qin was very curious to meet Mo's mother because she wanted to know whether she was as mischievous as her son and her husband. But Mo's mother had never visited the school—she was too scared of hearing bad things about her mischievous son!