Grey, the much-buzzed about latest installment of E.L. James's Fifty Shades of Grey series, blasted to the top of PW's print bestseller list, appearing at #1 for the week ended June 22. The book swamped the competition, selling more than 350,000 copies in just three days on sale, according to Nielsen BookScan, which records roughly 80% of print units. The next bestselling title was David McCullough's The Wright Brothers, which, with a full week of sales tracked, moved roughly 42,000 copies.
On June 22, Vintage reported that the book, which went on sale June 18, sold 1.1 million copies across trade paperback, e-book and audio formats. After announcing a second printing, Vintage said it will follow up with a third, fourth and fifth printing of Grey, bringing the in print total to 2.1 million copies.
Grey has a lock on the digital market, as well. For two weeks in a row, including the week prior to its publication, Grey has led Apple's iBooks bestseller list; and, since the announcement of its publication, the book has held the #1 spot on Amazon's Kindle bestseller list. A day before its release, Amazon confirmed that the book is the #1 Kindle pre-order of 2015 (Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee, was the #1 print pre-order of the year, according to the retailer).
