Jeff Kinney is one of the most popular authors in the world.
He is a good cartoonist and has produced a vast number of children’s books.
He shot to fame through the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series.
Net worth
Jeff Kinney is one of the richest authors in the world and his net worth reaches over $100M.
Biography
Born on February 19, 1971, in Fort Washington, Maryland, Jeff Kinney was also raised in that town.
Currently, he lives in Plainville, Massachusetts. He has three siblings – two older and one is younger. He is married to Julie Kinney and has two boys.
He has written a number of novels and produced movies. He had a creative bent of mind from the beginning. He sketched his first drawing that was one of a turtle, when he was barely three years old.
When he was in college, he came up with the idea of a comic strip. Soon, the idea came to fruition, when his campus newspaper agreed to feature the strip. He graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, in the early 1990s.
When he couldn’t syndicate his cartoon strip, he switched to writing books as a career. The Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series was launched in January 1998. He was working on it since 1988. The Wimpy Kid cartoons were originally published on funbrain.com.
When Internet became popular, the web version of his book series was launched in the year 2004. He kept on working on his book series for 8 years consistently, before he decided to approach a publisher.
Jeff Kinney’s Cartoon Class – How to draw Greg Heffley
In 2006, he signed up a contract with publisher Harry N Abrams Inc. and his dream of turning the Diary of a Wimpy Kid into print series saw the light of the day.
The book soon became a bestseller and its website received around 20 million views. By, April 2007, a complete set of around 14 books of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid got published. He also launched a do-it-yourself book for the series along with the movie diary. Later, his big recognition came when Time Magazine named Jeff Kinney as one of the world’s most influential people, in April 2009.
At present, Jeff Kinney is engaged in writing and designing online games. He also launched a kids- friendly website Poptropica. This website features the Diary of a Wimpy Kid characters and events.
As of 2018, the kid book series has sold around 200 million copies in print with Kinney as an executive producer.
The book series was also repurposed into feature films.
He is also a contributor in Guys Read, a book series written by many authors. In May 2015, Kinney and his wife Julie launched local bookstore in Plainville, Massachusetts and it was christened as An Unlikely Story.
Awards and recognitions
Jeff Kinney has been recognized by Time magazine and Nickelodeon for his extra ordinary work.
The World’s Most Influential People (April, 2009) – Time
His book series won a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award for Favorite Book 2016 – Nickelodeon
Final words
Jeff Kinney is one of the most popular writers in children’s genre. As far as quality and popularity is concerned, his work is no less than that of JK Rowling, the British author.
That’s the reason four of his books are chosen so far by 20th Century Fox to make movies on them. He is an avid book lover and currently he is running a bookstore as well.
