The bestselling e-book of 2012: ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’
If you bought a copy of “Fifty Shades of Grey” for your e-reader, you are not alone -- not by a long shot. E.L. James’ sexy novel about innocent college student Anastasia Steele and her love affair with handcuff-inclined billionaire Christian Grey was the bestselling e-book for all of 2012.
According to Digital Book World, James dominated the e-book bestseller list. The three books in her series -- “Fifty Shades of Grey,” “Fifty Shades Darker” and “Fifty Shades Freed” -- took the three top spots, respectively, on the e-book bestseller list.
If that might indicate that readers seek particularly adult e-books, it’s a rule that was swiftly broken by young adult writer Suzanne Collins. Her Hunger Games trilogy, propelled by a successful screen adaptation of the first book, came in at Nos. 4 (“The Hunger Games”), 5 (“Catching Fire”) and 6 (“Mockingjay”) on the e-book bestsller list. The three bundled together took another spot in the top 10, coming in at No. 8.
Just two non-series books made the top 10: the literary thriller “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn at No. 7 and William Landay’s “Defending Jacob” at No. 10.
The remaining book in the e-book top 10 is Sylvia Day’s “Bared to You,” an erotic novel that is part of Day’s Crossfire Series and landed at No. 9. Another in the series, “Reflected in You,” came in at No. 13.
Longtime bestsellers appeared further down on the list: John Grisham’s “The Racketeer” is at No. 20, Stephen King’s “11/22/63” at No. 22, and Kathryn Stockett’s “The Help” at No. 16. Nora Roberts had two e-books make the extended besteller list -- “The Last Boyfriend” (No. 21) and “The Perfect Hope” (No. 25) -- they’re the second and third books in her Inn BoonsBoro trilogy.
Digital Book World’s e-book rankings are taken from e-book sales for Kindle, Nook, Google, Kobo, and Sony. The list’s methodology is designed to weed out books that make quick rises and descents -- spikes that can come from deep price discounts -- and there are some internal calculations designed to make the e-book sales lists fair. Its weekly lists are broken down by price, so 99-cent bestsllers and $9.99 bestsellers will appear on different lists.
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