
The author whose book was adapted into the first Shin Megami Tensei, which itself spun out into multiple hit JRPG subseries, says that he doesn't really get that much money from Atlus' popular games.
In 1986, Aya Nishitani began to release a trilogy of sci-fi novels called Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei, which were soon adapted into two video games of the same name. That series was eventually renamed to Shin Megami Tensei and has since spawned several semi-related subseries, including Persona, Soul Hackers, and Devil Summoner.