Bankrate: Feels good to pass on the lesson of financial responsibility, eh?

Picoult: It does. I think if kids are fortunate and their parents can provide a lot of perks for them in their life, often they have no sense for the value of money and how hard it is to manage it. I think that's pretty important.

Bankrate: You were always conscious of making a living with your writing.

Picoult: Oh yeah. People often ask me why I didn't become a writer right out of college, and I always say, because I wanted to pay the rent. I mean, who do you know who succeeds as a writer? To be honest, I had a good five or six books published and out and selling before I would say that I was contributing at all to my family's income, not just breaking even in terms of what I was putting into it or paying for childcare or something like that. Now I'm the primary breadwinner in our family, but that was a long period of time building.

Bankrate: Your readers consider you the soccer mom made good, right?

Picoult: Make that hockey mom (laughs). Yeah, because I think I balance my home life and my career fairly well, and I tend to be known in my hometown as my kids' mom. Only recently do I have strangers come up to me and say, "Oh, I really like this book." It always surprises me when somebody knows me as a writer in my hometown because pretty much when I'm there, I'm literally running to hockey practice or driving to a squash match or taking my daughter to ice skating lessons or doing all the things that moms do.

Bankrate: Which is kind of surprising considering you're one of the more recognizable authors in America.

Picoult: I think it's the hair (laughs). You know, U.S. publishing is a weird thing; even when you are at the top of the best-seller list, people would have no idea what you look like. Stephen King is pretty recognizable because he has this striking face, but most people couldn't tell you what their authors look like, even the ones they love very much. It's very rare in America that I will be recognized on the street, but it happens a lot overseas. I don't know why, but readers tend to be a little bit more focused overseas, and there are more of them than there are in America. In America, if you're looking at pictures, they're of celebrities, and nobody thinks of authors as celebrities. But over in the U.K. and Australia, they do think of their authors as celebrities.

Bankrate: How has your success changed your life? You mentioned recently that your husband was able to quit his job and stay home with the kids.