‘Fifty Shades’: Three Volumes, Six Weeks, Ten Million Copies Sold

The year isn't even half over and it seems as if the biggest bestseller of 2012 has already been decided: “We have sold over ten million books in the Fifty Shades trilogy,” Anthony Chirico, President, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, proudly declared in New York. The trilogy was only released here a mere six weeks ago. Its impressive launch covers paperbacks, ebooks and audiobooks – in other words every form in which “Fifty Shades” has been published in the United States. However, the news is likely to spread joy far beyond the borders of the USA in the Random House world because “Fifty Shades” is published by Random House publishers in Spain, Germany, Britain and the Commonwealth, and therefore all around the world.

In North America Vintage Books published the three volumes by E L James , “Fifty Shades of Grey,” “Fifty Shades Darker” and “Fifty Shades Freed,” in paperback and as an ebook. Its sister company Random House Audio is responsible for the audiobook. Expectations for the trilogy were high from the start - which explains the initial print run of 750,000 for the paperback edition alone in early April (as reported on BENET). But this figure was surpassed long ago and there have already been 60 new editions and reprints. “Fifty Shades” is already one of the most successful book series of all time. Chirico says the sale of ten million copies in six weeks is “an astonishing number,” adding that t he sales velocity for Fifty Shades of Grey is unprecedented, with reader demand still growing . “ BookScan data indicates that the trilogy has captured 25 percent of the adult fiction market in recent weeks .” With the start of the summer reading season, the publisher expects sales to increase further.

In February, Vintage acquired the rights to “Fifty Shades,” which was first published by a small Australian publisher. The ebook of the first volume was published in March and the paperback edition in early April, followed after just two weeks by volumes two and three, so that the entire trilogy was on the market within a short space of time. “We have reprinted the book week after week,” says Chirico. “Sometimes more than 900,000 copies a day.” The publisher expressly thanked the professionals from the printing and distribution who had stocked the supply chain almost every day “with speed and precision.” He said that although sales of the printed editions have overtaken the ebook version that was launched somewhat earlier, ebook sales remain “incredibly strong.”

Random House publishers were able to secure the rights in many countries. For instance the first volume of the trilogy was published at the beginning of July by Goldmann in Germany under the title “ Shades of Grey – Geheimes Verlangen .” In the summer, Random House Mondadori is publishing the Spanish-language edition “Cincuenta Sombras de Grey.” Century and Arrow are publishing the three volumes in the U.K., South Africa, India and Australia. For publisher Selina Walker they are “really the books everyone is talking about – and just about everywhere in the world. They are romantic, liberating and incredibly addictive, and they have provided more food for conversation than any other book I can remember.”