The Multimillion Dollar Humor Of Janet Evanovich

I have read a couple of Janet Evanovich’s books. Mainly books that feature her main heroines who are Stephanie Plum and Jamie Swift. Reading her books is like going to school for me to learn about the craft of writing stories.

Let me be clear first, I’m in no way related to Janet Evanovich nor is I being paid by her to write about her or her books. Janet Evanovich already has her own Wikipedia page, so anyone who wants to know about her can just check her Wikipedia page.

She definitely does not need to pay people like me to promote her or her books. I simply want to analyze why her books are so popular that they have made her a multimillionaire. But besides the money, I can vouch that her books are definitely entertaining.

Is there a secret formula for her success in writing books? Or did she just win the book lottery and happened to write a book that millions of readers accidentally learned to love? I guess the former is the answer.

According to Wikipedia, seventeen of her Stephanie Plum novels have reached the New York Times Bestseller List (NYTB). Say what you will about the NYBT, but being in its list still holds water.

I must admit, being a non-American, I still have a lot to learn about successful authors from America. My introduction to her came in the form of a movie adaption of her book. This seems to be the most common way these days for authors to become internationally known.

Anyway, the title of the movie is One for the Money which is also the same title of her book. The movie stars Katherine Heigl in the lead role of Stephanie Plum. Janet Evanovich is said to have been paid $US 1 million for the movie rights to her book.

But $US 1 million is small change to her. As of 2021, she reportedly have a net worth of between $US 80 million to $US 125 million depending on the website you believe. But most website reports that as of 2021, she has a net worth of $US 120 million.

She has come a long way from a struggling romance author who decided to write humorous mysteries or romance suspense depending on which book site you visit online. Yes, her books can be found listed in conflicting book genre lists.

She was born in April 22, 1943. This means that as of 2021 she is already 78 years old. She and her family handles her book publishing company, Evanovich Inc. Some of her family members are also authors.

There are already online articles that discuss the fictional world of Stephanie Plum. I for example found a Wikipedia page dedicated to her and her fictional world complete with the characters that inhabit her world.

But reading a Wikipedia page about this fictional character is not enough for you to know why she has become one of the most endeared fictional characters in books. To understand her, you have to read the book.

Janet Evanovich has humor in her mind when she envisioned the world of Stephanie Plum and her cast of characters. The character of Stephanie Plum alone is worth some serious study. I am a man and I can relate to her the same way I can relate to my women acquaintances.

I don’t know if I can do justice to her character in this article, but let me fill in a few details about Stephanie Plum. She lives in a close knit average neighborhood and is separated from her cheating husband.

She got laid off from her job and becomes a bounty hunter for her relative who owns a bail bond company. She got the job by blackmailing her relative. She gets romantically involved with a cop and is friends with bounty hunters with questionable characters.

I think the Stephanie Plum Wikipedia page would do a better job of describing her, the characters in her world, and her world herself. You could definitely tell that this fictional character is well loved because of the exhaustive Wikipedia page about her.

One of the reasons why she’s so endearing to book readers is because she’s a woman. Most book readers today are women so having a female lead character in a book is already a definite advantage as women relate more with female characters.

Come to think of it, the book world is not the only entertainment medium where we are seeing the growing influence of women characters being the main protagonist. The movie world is also teeming with female heroines.

I came to this conclusion when I saw almost a continuous stream of movies showing female lead characters, but they were not portrayed as weak women who pined for the love of a handsome hunk. They were women who kicked the asses of men.

I’m talking about such movie characters as Lara Croft of the Tomb Raider franchise, Jill Valentine of the Resident Evil franchise, Ultraviolet of the Ultraviolet comics series, and so on.

Clearly a lot of authors have realized that both men and women readers enjoy reading about female characters who are not only female, but also have enough strength to take on men’s roles if need be.

I think nothing turns off people, both men and women, than people who are overly aggressive. Please forgive me if I sound like a chauvinist male, but I still think men prefer women who are definitely feminine.


The character Stephanie Plum is a bounty hunter by trade, but she’s not depicted as the prototypical tough as nails action hero. Instead, both men and women can relate to her. She can be anyone’s sister, daughter or even mother.

Reading a book about her, especially her dialogues, I’m reminded of my women acquaintances who despite having jobs that are comparable to men, still are able to keep their feminine side even while performing their manly jobs.

One reason why we love the bumbling police and detective characters like the Keystone Cops and Inspector Clouseau of the Pink Panther series is because we love to make fun of people in power.

Policemen, detectives, military personnel and all other people involved in maintaining the law are some of the most powerful people in society. By making fun of these group of people by portraying them as bumbling idiots, we humanize them.

Portraying these people as bumbling idiots have proven to be one of the most profitable source of entertainment we have. We can only look at the successful Police Academy franchise to prove our point.

I’m not saying that the Stephanie Plum character is a bumbling idiot, but her laid back and almost comical attitude, plus the comical situations she finds herself in, makes her very human. She may be in a powerful job, but just like many of us, she’s barely coping.

The character Stephanie Plum may be a down on her luck bounty hunter, but this does not mean she has a boring career. But Janet Evanovich did not emphasize action or adventure when she writes how Stephanie Plum goes about doing her job as a bounty hunter.

Instead, she emphasizes the nuances of doing her job as bounty hunter. I think Janet Evanovich was thinking of people who have to struggle with the daily nuances of the jobs they either hate or enjoy.

And this is one of the way to endear your character to your movie watchers or book readers, by humanizing them as ordinary people who have to struggle with their careers. This is probably the reason why for example the comic book character The Hulk is so popular.

Almost everyone especially young children and comic book enthusiasts know this character. Everyone knows his catchphrase “Don’t make me angry. You won’t like me when I’m angry.” The Hulk is loved because he “smashes” the many nuances of our daily life.

In Stephanie Plum’s case, even the nuances of her job are exciting. From dealing with shady characters who may be fellow bounty hunter or bail bond jumpers, to her cars being destroyed, her life is certainly not what you call normal.

Even Stephanie Plum’s family members are comedic but very relatable. From her goofy and lecherous grandmother who still enjoys going out with other old people, to her very religious mother. These and many other characters from her family can be found elsewhere.

Goofy and lecherous old women can be found in such sitcoms as the Golden Girls, very religious yet comical characters can be found in such characters as Ned Flanders from the Simpson animated television show.

It’s like Janet Evanovich knows which characters are familiar and relatable to people, especially when referring to certain family members in one’s family. By portraying Stephanie plum’s family as not perfect and even in chaos at times, she reminds many people of their own families.

One recurring theme about Stephanie Plum’s life is her financial difficulties which she almost has to deal with on a daily basis. In the books, her financial situation is so dire that she has to do jobs she’s not comfortable with just to earn a small amount of money.

I think Janet Evanovich hit a bullseye with her readers because of this. A lot of people can relate to money problems, especially extreme ones. A lot of people have faced or are facing the same situation as Stephanie Plum.

In a way, I think that there are readers of Stephanie Plum books who identify with her. Locked in jobs they don’t really enjoy and are almost always having financial problems. The only difference is, Stephanie Plum is a bounty hunter who goes after bad guys.

I have read a couple of Janet Evanovich’s books, but I must admit that they are so many that it would take me time to read them all. I however was lucky enough to have read a few of her Jamie Swift books.

She is another of her’s out of the ordinary woman character. In this case, Jamie Swift is the newspaper publishing owner of a small town. She finds herself solving crimes because of her job as a newspaper publisher.

Just like Stephanie Plum, she’s laid back but can be tough if she needs to be. She also has her feminine side, can also be comical, and also have comical friends. You might say that Stephanie Plum and Jamie Swift have a lot of similarities.

By doing this, Janet Evanovich has played on her previous character’s strengths. She has also made another character whom she knows her readers would be very familiar with and relate to. This is not a new strategy.

This goes with the popular slogans: Why fix something that’s not broken? Or “Why reinvent the wheel?” A lot of successful businesspeople would struggle for years developing a product that their customers love. When they find one, the best strategy is to offer a similar product to their customers.

There is one addition though, to Jamie Swift’s world that is not present in Stephanie Plum’s world. This is the millionaire or billionaire male romantic love character. This character capitalizes on the popularity of these kinds of characters in the romance genre.

This character is so popular that there are romance genres that are categorized as “billionaire romance.” And I can relate to why this character exists, many women want to be swept off their feet by a dashing prince charming that would take them to his palace.

The only difference today is that a prince charming has been replaced by a powerful billionaire, and the palace has been replaced by a palace like million dollar mansion. Even a man like me can understand this.

Although I am a realist and know that I’m not a billionaire, I still enjoy reading some of these billionaire romance stories. Sometimes I would also wish that I could be one of these hunky billionaire characters.

I think one of the reasons why the books of Janet Evanovich have been successful and well loved, is because she has made very endearing and almost comical characters who usually find themselves in comical situations as well.

But her characters are very relatable as well. Most of her characters are not depicted as heroic or even invincible. They are very human with real problems facing the nuances of the everyday world around us. And as she has proven, there is a good market for this kind of entertainment.