Grey pound of flesh pays off for EL James

The fourth novel in EL James’s Fifty Shades series, Grey, sold 8,164 copies in its first week on sale in Ireland, almost double the rest of the top 10 bestselling books combined. It has also broken the British first week sales record for adult books. Grey, which gives billionaire Christian Grey’s version of events, sold 647,401 copies in its first three days. The figure represents nearly 100,000 more copies than the previous record holder, Dan Brown’s 2009 novel The Lost Symbol, which sold 551,000 copies in five days. Universally poor reviews haven’t made a dent in sales in America either, where 1.1 million copies sold in four days. Sparking a new genre of fan fiction and self-publishing, the Fifty Shades series has sold more than 125 million copies worldwide. The recent film adaptation starring Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson as the book’s tormented couple also took record-breaking sums at the box office. Announced with little fanfare at the beginning of June, James’s new book immediately topped charts from pre-sale orders before being released last week.

The Fifty Shades trilogy — Fifty Shades Of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed — has sold more than 125 million copies around the world. It has made James a millionaire many times over. This year’s Sunday Times Rich List estimated her fortune at £75 million.