Forget I said anything!
It may be a separate topic but I’m trying to think of how many SF authors are actually famous and not just famous for a SF author. Those who are known beyond just those who read their books. Of the dead Clarke and Asimov were famous. King certainly is. To a lesser extent I think Gaiman is. He gets interviewed on subjects beyond his own books. He’s appeared in The Simpsons and Big Bang Theory as well as in some of the product based on his own works. I can’t think of any more that are famous beyond their niche.
Margaret Atwood? The Handmaid’s Tale is SF, and has been on cable.
I think you’re right. Looking at the list of Hugo Winners and Nebula Winners for the past twenty years, I’m not seeing any names that I would expect non-nerds to know.
I do know her name even though I haven’t read the book or watched the show. But I have no idea what she looks like. That’s a level of notoriety but I’m not sure if that’s true fame. All in how you define it.
John Grisham and James Patterson are two of the best selling authors in the country and I have no idea what they look like.
Speaking of James Patterson he has written some science fiction himself but I doubt most people think of him as “science fiction” writer considering most of work is outside the genre,.
I’ll admit to not knowing the whole Card bibliography. I also don’t personally worry about “who is a REAL sci-fi only writer” so I was just spitballing for sake of the OP
I like Dresden Dolls but I’d be shocked if more than one person out of five has heard of them and would guess closer to 1-in-10 if that. It’s pretty niche stuff. Wiki says that US sales for their second/last studio album were 19,000 copies.
There were 43,100 American bookstores in 2023, a 0.5% increase from 2022. It’s hard to tell what the most popular categories are. They are split up in various ways.
His short story “The Soft Weapon” was converted into an episode of Star Trek: the Animated Series, and “Inconstant Moon” was adapted for an episode of the 1996 version of The Outer Limits. He also co-wrote 3 episodes of Land of the Lost. A few non-SF fans saw those, though not many.
I would say Alan Dean Foster. His movie novelizations are mostly within the genre, but he has novelized enough blockbusters that I think some people in the mainstream probably know his name.
Nora Roberts (under her pen name of J. D. Robb) might be the most famous science fiction writer alive (and certainly the best-selling) - but her books (about a near future detective using technology that doesn’t exist at the moment) aren’t sold as science fiction as far as I know, so she probably doesn’t count.
Back when Greg Bear was alive, he managed to get an interview on the Daily Show, but Asimov was on Carson, Letterman, the Mike Douglas show (several times), etc., when those shows had really high ratings.
John Scalzi was internet-famous even before he was an SF writer for his bacon-cat photo and got NYT coverage for his big book contract, but that hasn’t translated to anywhere near Clarke or Asimov fame (Heinlein never was as famous in the outside world as A or C).
David Brin was in the pilot episode of a program about SF writers trying to fix real world problems - but it was not a hit.
I’d say George R. R. Martin is the most famous SF writer living today (even if he’s currently known for his fantasy work). He’s got a distinctive look, too, which helps with fame.
Larry’s a bit shy, actually, which is not my impression of Card. You could probably have a decent conversation with Niven
Too bad. He’s really a very nice person. Every interaction I’ve had with him over the years has been memorable, at least.
Watch Castle sometime. IIRC Patterson shows up a couple of times at Rick’s poker night.
My selection would be Martin. Sure, he’s more famous for fantasy, but his SF was top-notch.
I remember watching an episode of Tomorrow, the late-night NBC talk show, hosted by Tom Snyder, in the early 1980s, on which the three guests were all well-known science fiction authors: Asmiov, Harlan Ellison, and Gene Wolfe. It was a fascinating discussion, though much of it seemed to be Asimov trying to poke at Ellison to get a reaction.
Cool! I’d have liked to have seen that.
The OP specified book writer.
Otherwise it’d be Kojima.
Who did Asimov think he was, Frank Sinatra?
In that case, I’d nominate Michael Moorcock.
I have a number of friends who are still big fans of his Elric books, but I don’t think he has much, if any, name recognition in the U.S., outside of the speculative fiction community…plus fans of Blue Oyster Cult and Hawkwind. 
Ah, true, but individual episodes don’t really count for what we’re looking for, here. The only people who ever know who wrote an individual episode of a TV show are folks who are already fans of that writer. It won’t expand their fame.
And while there are definitely authors who write both science fiction and fantasy, most specialize in one or the other, and write either very fantasy-ish science fiction, or very science-fiction-ish fantasy.
He had two appearances on Craig Ferguson, but Ferguson was probably the most intellectual late night talk show host there has been in a long time.
I know what both of them look like. Grisham was famous enough for mainstream media to seek him out for interviews.
James Patterson I’ve probably seen more than any other author despite the fact that I haven’t read any of his books. He does his own commercials on tv. There were times I couldn’t get away from them.
