Erotica Outselling Literary Classics by Vast Margin
Erotic fiction is still going strong, with books like Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James outselling classics like Charles Dickens and Jane Austen.
This news should come as no surprise, as Reflected in You by Sylvia Day sold 100,000 copies in its first week on the shelves and Fifty Shades of Grey has sold 40 million copies since it was first published.
“Although we weren’t surprised to see an increase in sales of erotic fiction on the site, we were shocked at how much they are outselling award-winning novels such as Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies,” said Adam Stewart of Play.com.
“It shows that the Fifty Shades phenomenon is well and truly alive, and customer engagement with the genre looks set to remain,” he added.
It just goes to show that awards don’t necessarily sell books, as sad as that sounds to those who appreciate good prose.