Sarah J. Maas is a 40-year-old fantasy author with 75 million+ books sold. Explore her career, ACOTAR series, net worth, family life, and rise as the queen of romantasy.
Sarah J. Maas is the reigning queen of romantasy — a genre she didn’t just popularize but essentially defined for a new generation of readers. The #1 New York Times bestselling author behind the Throne of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and Crescent City series has sold over 75 million copies worldwide, with her work translated into more than 40 languages. She is, by almost any measure, one of the most successful fantasy authors alive today.
What makes her story remarkable is where it started — not with a publishing deal, but with a teenage girl sitting at a computer, posting chapters of a Cinderella retelling online because she couldn’t stop writing it. That story eventually became Throne of Glass, and the rest unfolded with the kind of slow, stubborn momentum that tends to produce lasting careers rather than fleeting ones.
Quick Facts About Sarah J. Maas
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full name | Sarah Janet Maas |
| Date of birth | March 5, 1986 |
| Age (2026) | 40 years old |
| Birthplace | New York City, New York, USA |
| Profession | Author, novelist |
| Net worth (2026) | Approximately $40–50 million |
| Spouse | Josh Wasserman (married 2010) |
| Children | Two — Taran (b. 2018) and Sloane (b. 2022) |
| Education | Hamilton College, BA — Creative Writing & Religious Studies (Magna Cum Laude, 2008) |
| Famous for | Throne of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR), Crescent City |
Early Life: A New York Childhood Built on Stories
Sarah Janet Maas was born on March 5, 1986, in New York City. She grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, adopted by a Catholic mother and a Jewish father, and raised in the Jewish faith. From an early age, she was drawn to fantasy — obsessed first with J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books, then spending weekends and school breaks writing stories of her own. For Maas, storytelling wasn’t a hobby. It was closer to a compulsion.
By age 16, that compulsion had found its focus. Inspired by the idea that Cinderella could be something far more dangerous — not a servant, but an assassin, not attending the ball to meet the prince but to kill him — she began drafting what would eventually become Throne of Glass. She posted chapters of the story online under the title Queen of Glass on FictionPress.com, where it quickly became one of the most-read works on the site. Even then, before agents or publishers or bestseller lists, she had an audience.
Education: From Hamilton College to a Career in Words
Maas enrolled at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, where she majored in creative writing and minored in religious studies — not the most conventional career path, but a logical one for someone who had already been writing seriously for years. She graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2008, a testament to the discipline that runs through everything she does.
It was during her freshman year at Hamilton that she met Josh Wasserman, then a resident assistant in her dorm. They began dating, and after years together, married in 2010. Josh — affectionately known by Maas’s fan community as “Papa Maas” — has been a consistent presence and supporter throughout her career, including at international book signings where he has developed his own following among readers.
The Long Road to Publishing: Building Throne of Glass
Between the ages of 16 and 22, Maas drafted four or five full versions of the Throne of Glass story before scrapping them all and starting again. She had grown as a writer, she knew, and the earlier drafts no longer matched what she could do. In 2008 — the same year she graduated — she began sending the manuscript to literary agents. She signed with agent Tamar Rydzinski in 2009, and in March 2010, Queen of Glass officially became Throne of Glass and sold to Bloomsbury Publishing.
The novel was published in August 2012 and marked the beginning of a series that would eventually span eight books, concluding with Kingdom of Ash in 2018. The premise — a teenage assassin navigating a corrupt kingdom — earned Maas a devoted young adult readership and established her as a major voice in fantasy fiction. Crown of Midnight (2013), the second installment, became a New York Times YA bestseller, and the momentum never really stopped after that.
ACOTAR and the Romantasy Revolution
While Throne of Glass built Maas’s career, A Court of Thorns and Roses transformed it. She actually wrote the first draft of the ACOTAR book in 2009 — inspired partly by the Princess Mononoke soundtrack and loosely rooted in Beauty and the Beast — but the novel wasn’t published until 2015, after Throne of Glass had already established her platform. The timing proved perfect.
The series follows Feyre Archeron, a young woman drawn into the dangerous, sensory world of the Fae after killing a faerie in the woods. What followed was a five-book series (with a sixth confirmed for October 2026 and a seventh scheduled for January 2027) that blended high fantasy with mature romance in a way readers found genuinely addictive. The second book in the series, A Court of Mist and Fury, is widely considered her finest work and the emotional centerpiece of the entire ACOTAR universe.
BookTok made the series a cultural phenomenon. The #ACOTAR tag has accumulated over 8.5 billion views on TikTok, and a 2021 study named Maas the most popular author on the platform. Readers who had never picked up a fantasy novel before found themselves ordering the series in box sets and rereading them in the same year. The term “romantasy” — romance fused with epic fantasy — became an established publishing category largely because of what her books had proven was possible.
Crescent City and an Expanding Universe
Maas launched her third series, Crescent City, in 2020 with House of Earth and Blood. Set in a modern city populated by Fae, angels, shifters, and humans, it represented a deliberate shift toward adult fiction and a grittier, more urban aesthetic. The series has since expanded to three volumes and connected in fan-beloved ways to both the ACOTAR and Throne of Glass universes — a move that delighted longtime readers and generated significant online discussion.
The ACOTAR TV Adaptation: What Happened
In March 2021, Hulu announced a television adaptation of A Court of Thorns and Roses, with Outlander creator Ronald D. Moore attached as showrunner. Fans were elated. But the project stalled — first through the writers’ and actors’ strikes of 2023, then through Moore’s eventual departure, and finally through Hulu’s decision to let the project lapse entirely. In February 2025, Variety confirmed the series was dead at Hulu.
The story, however, doesn’t end there. By early 2026, Maas confirmed that she had bought back the rights to the adaptation. “Any TV or movie adaptation is kind of like another facet of the worlds I’ve created, and it’s something I want to be in charge of,” she said. The project is now being shopped to other platforms, with Maas in a position of significantly more creative control than she held before.
Personal Life
Maas lives in Pennsylvania with her husband Josh and their two children — son Taran, born June 2018, and daughter Sloane, born February 2022. She has spoken openly about how her family grounds her amid the intensity of her career and the demands of a global fanbase. She has also been candid about her own mental health, drawing on personal experiences while writing A Court of Silver Flames, and has spoken out about toxic fan behavior that pushed her to scale back her social media presence in recent years.
Outside of writing, she has cited classical music — particularly film scores — as a constant creative companion. The Princess Mononoke soundtrack, she has noted, directly inspired the ACOTAR series. Her taste runs toward the cinematic and the emotional, which perhaps explains why her books feel, for so many readers, like they were written to be watched as much as read.
Net Worth and Earnings
As of 2026, Sarah J. Maas’s net worth is estimated at between $40 and $50 million, generated primarily through global book sales, publishing advances, royalties, merchandise, and licensing rights. With over 75 million copies sold across three major series — and two more ACOTAR books on the way — her earning potential shows no signs of slowing. The sheer scale of her readership, combined with the merchandising ecosystem that has grown around her books (special editions, candles, art prints, themed subscription boxes), gives her financial footprint unusual breadth for a novelist.
Legacy and Impact on Modern Fantasy
Sarah J. Maas didn’t just write popular books — she reshaped what popular fantasy could look like. Before ACOTAR, the idea that epic fantasy with romantic and explicit content could dominate mainstream bestseller lists was not a given. After ACOTAR, publishers rushed to replicate it, an entire “romantasy” shelf category emerged in bookstores, and a generation of new authors found their market. Her influence on BookTok, on publishing trends, and on how female-led fantasy is marketed and received has been substantial and lasting.
At 40, with two new ACOTAR books in progress and the adaptation rights back in her hands, she is not winding down. If anything, the next chapter looks more ambitious than the last.
People Also Ask
How many books has Sarah J. Maas sold?
As of 2024, she has sold over 75 million copies worldwide across her three series — Throne of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and Crescent City — with translations in more than 40 languages.
What is the best Sarah J. Maas book to start with?
Most readers recommend starting with A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015), as it is the most accessible entry point into her writing. Those who prefer a longer series-first approach often begin with Throne of Glass (2012). The second ACOTAR book, A Court of Mist and Fury, is widely considered her best individual novel.
Is the ACOTAR TV show still happening?
The Hulu adaptation was officially cancelled in February 2025 after years of development. Maas has since confirmed she bought back the rights and plans to shop the project to other platforms, with more creative control this time.
Is Sarah J. Maas writing more ACOTAR books?
Yes. ACOTAR Book 6 is scheduled for release on October 27, 2026, and ACOTAR Book 7 is scheduled for January 12, 2027.
Where does Sarah J. Maas live?
She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband Josh Wasserman and their two children, Taran and Sloane.
