Fifty Shades of Grey Sells More Than 10 Million Books in 6 Weeks

Posted on May 22, 2012

Vintage Books announced today that E.L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy has sold more than ten million books in six weeks. The books are selling in trade paperbook, ebook and audiobook format. It seems like every one is reading one the book: Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker, and Fifty Shades Freed.

Anthony Chirico, President, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group said, "This is an astonishing number. The sales velocity for Fifty Shades of Grey is unprecedented, with reader demand still growing. BookScan data indicates that the trilogy has captured twenty-five percent of the adult fiction market in recent weeks. As we head into the heart of the summer reading season, sales are likely to continue exceeding even our most optimistic forecasts."

Vintage Books bought the audio rights and English language publication rights in February. The ebook came out in March and the paperbacks were released in April. Rights to the books have now been sold in 37 countries. Chirico says that they had to reprint the books every week to keep up with demand. There are now nine million, five hundred thousand copies of the books in print.

The books began as Twilight fan fiction that included bondage. The reviews have been terrible, but fans don't care. If you'd like a taste of the writing, here's a hilarious video of Oscar winner Charlize Theron, Twilight's Kristen Stewart and Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth, being forced to read a passage from the book during an interview with MTV.