'Fifty Shades of Grey' is Fastest Selling Paperback

British author E.L. James' debut novel "Fifty Shades of Grey" has become the fastest selling paperback since Nielsen BookScan began tracking book sales in 1998.


The erotic novel, about a young billionaire’s sexual ownership over an inexperienced college coed, sold out its initial 750,000 paperback run in less time than J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series and Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," which remains the best selling paperback with 5 million copies sold. 


"The success has not been driven by people who regularly buy books, but by people who buy maybe three or four books a year," a Nielsen BookScan spokesperson said. “The books have crossed into the mass market. Clearly, people aren’t embarrassed by it anymore."


Dubbed by the New York Times as “mommy porn” for its appeal to women over thirty, the book and its two sequels — "Fifty Shades Darker" and "Fifty Shades Freed"— have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide (eBook and paperback combined).


James, a former London TV executive and mother of two, originally posted her "Twilight Saga" inspired BDSM romance story under the heading “Master of the Universe” on FanFiction.net. An instant hit with readers, the novel was quickly picked up by Australian publisher Writer's Coffee Shop Publishing House and retitled "Fifty Shades of Grey."


Random House imprint Vintage secured the English-language rights to the trilogy in March, paying James a reported $1 million. The publisher issued eBook versions of the trilogy that same month and released it on paperback in April.


James reportedly earned an additional $5 million after selling movie rights to her book to Focus Features/ Universal. She is now said to be planning a new "Fifty Shades" trilogy written from the perspective of young billionaire and Dom Christian Grey, the novel's bad boy protagonist.


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Fifty Shades of Grey Novel Banned from FL Libary

"Fifty Shades of Grey," the BDSM romance novel from newcomer E.L. James, may be whipping up big sales for retailers of erotic fiction, but the New York Times bestseller won't be hanging around Brevard County's public libraries.


“It’s quite simple — it doesn’t meet our selection criteria,” Library Services Director Cathy Schweinsberg told FloridaToday.com. "Nobody asked us to take it off the shelves, but we bought some copies before we realized what it was. We looked at it because it’s been called ‘mommy porn’ and ‘soft porn.’ We don’t collect porn.”


FloridaToday notes, however, that some of Brevard County's libraries do carry erotic literature, citing “The Complete Kama Sutra,” “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” “Fear of Flying,” “Tropic of Cancer” and “Lolita” as examples.


"I think because those other books were written years ago and became classics because of the quality of the writing,” Schweinsberg noted. “This is not a classic.”


"Fifty Shades of Grey" follows the kink-fueled love affair that develops between 27-year-old billionaire Christian Grey and his submissive conquest, a 22-year-old college virgin named Anastasia Steele.


The book's phenomenal success is comparable to that of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" and Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium” trilogy. A film adaptation is already in the works at Focus Features/Universal, as is a porn parody from Adult Source Media.