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Fifty Shades of Grey 'the fastest selling book ever'

26th June 2012

The incredible popularity of E. L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey and its sequels has made it the fastest selling adult novel of all time in the UK, according to estimates.

Last week, the first book in the erotic fiction series sold 205,130 paperback copies, which comprehensively beats the previous record of 141,000 set by Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol in July 2010.

The second and third books in the trilogy - Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed - sold 132,174 copies and 115,086 copies over the same period, respectively, which means James has become the first author to have two or more books sell more than 100,000 copies in the same week.

Overall, £1.93 million was spent on the 452,390 copies sold, which is more than the total spent on the next 50 bestselling paperback novels of the week combined.

It is estimated that the first book in the series will have sold in excess of one million paperback copies by the end of the month, though almost three million copies of the three books in the trilogy have so far been sold in the UK, when digital sales are taken into account.

Philip Stone, charts editor of the Bookseller, said sales of the Fifty Shades books have been 'nothing short of phenomenal'.

'Records are tumbling. Of course this is just sales of the physical, print edition. It is no doubt breaking e-book download records too, meaning Fifty Shades of Grey is perhaps the fastest-selling adult novel of all time,' he added.

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