1 Fifty Shades of Grey E. L. James Vintage Apr 12 2,312,778
2 Fifty Shades Darker E. L. James Vintage Apr 12 1,105,258
3 Fifty Shades Freed E. L. James Vintage Apr 12 946,587
4 The Lucky One Nicholas Sparks Grand Central Mar 12 233,598
5 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest Stieg Larsson Vintage Feb 12 208,749
6 The Help Kathryn Stockett Berkley Apr 11 190,049
7 The Lucky One Nicholas Sparks Grand Central Feb 12 187,831
8 Calico Joe John Grisham Doubleday Apr 12 184,070
9 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest Stieg Larsson Vintage Feb 12 180,536
10 The Last Boyfriend Nora Roberts Berkley May 12 176,117
11 The Affair Lee Child Dell Mar 12 169,445
12 The Sixth Man David Baldacci Vision Mar 12 151,388
13 The Girl Who Played With Fire Stieg Larsson Vintage B Mar 10 146,722
14 The Innocent David Baldacci Grand Central Apr 12 144,257
15 The Tiger’s Wife Tea Obreht Random House Trade Nov 11 140,584
16 Deadlocked Charlaine Harris Ace Books May 12 135,681
17 I’ll Walk Alone Mary Higgins Clark Pocket Books Mar 12 133,195
18 The Girl Who Played With Fire Stieg Larsson Vintage Nov 11 130,855
19 The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson Vintage Nov 11 129,786
20 The Wind Through the Keyhole Stephen King Scribner Apr 12 119,509
21 11th Hour James Patterson Little, Brown May 12 118,169
22 Chasing Fire Nora Roberts Jove Books Apr 12 117,752
23 The Witness Nora Roberts Putnam Apr 12 110,897
24 The Postcard Killers James Patterson Vision Apr 12 98,004
25 The Next Always Nora Roberts Berkley Nov 11 96,075
50 Shades A Dominant Powerhouse
The 50 Shades trilogy sits safely on top of the year-to-date bestseller list, having sold a combined 4,364,623 copies since the three books debuted in paperback on April 3, according to Nielsen BookScan. That’s a copy sold every 1.25 seconds. If you stacked up every copy of the trilogy sold, the throbbing tower of erotica would thrust 65 miles into the stratosphere. Not bad for something that started off as Twilight fan fiction. The other series juggernaut, Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series, continues to be a megaseller, occupying five of the top 25 bestseller slots so far this year in all formats. Overall, the list is one of brand names—Nora Roberts, Nicholas Sparks, Stephen King—though it may come as something of a surprise that perennial bestseller James Patterson only has one entry here, the mass market edition of The Postcard Killers, which he co-wrote with Liza Marklund, who just happens to be another bestselling Swedish crime writer. Turns out, crime pays—but not nearly as much as bondage. Either way, though, looks like the key to success this year is a set of handcuffs. —Jonathan Segura
