Here's the breakdown:
* The Lord of the Rings books were written first (published from 1954 to 1955).
* The Hobbit book was written before the Lord of the Rings, but published in 1937, making it chronologically the first story written.
* The Lord of the Rings films were released first because Peter Jackson and his team secured the rights to film both the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings in 1998. They decided to film the Lord of the Rings trilogy first, as it was a longer and more complex story.
* The success of the Lord of the Rings films fueled the desire to make the Hobbit trilogy, but those films weren't released until 2012-2014.
So, while The Hobbit was written before the Lord of the Rings, the movies were released in reverse order due to production and scheduling decisions.