Vintage has sold a combined total of ten million trade paperback, eBook and audiobook copies of E.L. James‘ Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy in the last six weeks.
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group president Anthony Chirico had this statement: “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.”
At the same time, The New York Times reported more libraries debating about carrying the racy books like the Brevard County Public Library in Florida. The Wisconsin library that serves the Fond du Lac community has refused to purchase any copies. Several libraries throughout the country have chosen to do the same.
In the article, National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) executive director Joan Bertin commented: “The vast majority of cases that we deal with have to do with removing books to keep kids from seeing them … in the case of adults, other than the restrictions on obscenity and child pornography, there’s simply no excuse. This is really very much against the norms in the profession.” What do you think?
If you want to know more about the origins of this bestseller, check out our Secret History of Fifty Shades of Grey post.
MTV‘s Josh Horowitz managed to persuade the cast of Snow White & The Huntsman (all of whom are past the age of 21) to read a short snippet from the first book. The video embedded below showcases celebrity actors Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth and Sam Claflin reciting a particularly racy scene aloud.
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