Love story … the success of erotica such as EL James's Fifty Shades of Grey is partly due to the rise of ereaders. Photograph: Richard Levine/Alamy
A UK press has paid a six-figure sum for British rights to Fifty Shades of Grey, the erotic novel that has set the literary world buzzing as publishers fall over themselves to land a slice of the booming erotica market.
The British former TV executive EL James's Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy was first published last summer by a small Australian press. Following the submissive-dominant relationship between a 27-year-old billionaire and a college student, the books started life as fan fiction based in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight world but last week topped the New York Times bestseller list.
More than 250,000 copies in ebook and paperback editions have now been sold, and American publisher Vintage Books pounced on the US rights for a reported seven-figure sum earlier this week.
Now Vintage's British sister company, Century, has landed the UK rights for what it said was a six-figure sum, with the three titles to be available in ebook from today and the first print edition out on 12 April.
"These truly are the books everyone is talking about – pretty much around the world," said publisher Selina Walker. "They are romantic, liberating, and utterly page-turning, and have sparked more round-the-table conversation than any books I can remember."
The news comes as erotic fiction sales continue to grow across the board. This morning, HarperCollins's imprint Avon announced the launch of a new erotica arm, Mischief, which will target "the rapidly growing and lucrative digital erotica market" with a bombardment of new titles: 13 original ebooks to launch the imprint later this month, with four more to follow every month, as well as a range of bestselling modern and vintage erotica.
Avon believes the "phenomenal" boom in erotica sales is down to the growing social acceptability of the genre, as well as the discretion offered by ereading. Publisher Caroline Ridding said the new list, which will include paranormal erotica, was being released into the heart of the "vast digital erotica and erotic romance market and its enormous global online constituency", which she said was "driven almost exclusively" by female readers.
The British former TV executive EL James's Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy was first published last summer by a small Australian press. Following the submissive-dominant relationship between a 27-year-old billionaire and a college student, the books started life as fan fiction based in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight world but last week topped the New York Times bestseller list.
More than 250,000 copies in ebook and paperback editions have now been sold, and American publisher Vintage Books pounced on the US rights for a reported seven-figure sum earlier this week.
Now Vintage's British sister company, Century, has landed the UK rights for what it said was a six-figure sum, with the three titles to be available in ebook from today and the first print edition out on 12 April.
"These truly are the books everyone is talking about – pretty much around the world," said publisher Selina Walker. "They are romantic, liberating, and utterly page-turning, and have sparked more round-the-table conversation than any books I can remember."
The news comes as erotic fiction sales continue to grow across the board. This morning, HarperCollins's imprint Avon announced the launch of a new erotica arm, Mischief, which will target "the rapidly growing and lucrative digital erotica market" with a bombardment of new titles: 13 original ebooks to launch the imprint later this month, with four more to follow every month, as well as a range of bestselling modern and vintage erotica.
Avon believes the "phenomenal" boom in erotica sales is down to the growing social acceptability of the genre, as well as the discretion offered by ereading. Publisher Caroline Ridding said the new list, which will include paranormal erotica, was being released into the heart of the "vast digital erotica and erotic romance market and its enormous global online constituency", which she said was "driven almost exclusively" by female readers.
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