Hubbard is the
Guinness World Record holder for the most published author, with 1,084 works,
[318] most translated book (70 languages for
The Way to Happiness)
[319] and most audiobooks (185 as of April 2009).
[320] According to
Galaxy Press, Hubbard's
Battlefield Earth has sold over 6 million copies and
Mission Earth a further 7 million, with each of its ten volumes becoming
New York Times bestsellers on their release;
[31] however, the
Los Angeles Times reported in 1990 that Hubbard's followers had been buying large numbers of the books and re-issuing them to stores, so as to boost sales figures.
[321] Opinions are divided about his literary legacy. Scientologists have written of their desire to "make Ron the most acclaimed and widely known author of all time".
[321] The sociologist
William Sims Bainbridge writes that even at his peak in the late 1930s Hubbard was regarded by readers of
Astounding Science Fiction as merely "a passable, familiar author but not one of the best", while by the late 1970s "the [science fiction] subculture wishes it could forget him" and fans gave him a worse rating than any other of the "Golden Age" writers.
