Skip to main content

E. L James The Mister Sells More Than 50,000 Copies in Week One

By April 28, 2019New Releases

Last week we brought you the news that E. L James new book, The Mister, her first since the 50 Shades series, had hit the shelves and since then it’s shot to the number 1 spot on the UK book charts.

Say what you want about it – and the critics have absolutely panned it – in week one of release The Mister has sold 52,674 physical copies in its first week, according to sales monitor Neilsen BookScan. That puts it at number 1 on the UK book charts ahead of popular books such as Hinch Yourself Happy by Mrs Hinch, Past Tense by Lee Child, and Lethal White, written by J. K Rowling under a pseudonym.

You could even call it a romp up the charts (sorry, not sorry!)

To date professional reviewers have not been kind. The Telegraph gave it a one star rating asking if The Mister is ‘her worst yet’. The Atlantic stated that “it’s not just The Mister is bad, it’s that it’s bad in ways that seem to cause the space-time continuum itself to wobble slightly” (ouch).

However, the reviews are not putting readers and so far it’s the highest first week of sales for an adult novel since Dan Brown released Origin last summer, and the highest first-week sales for any novel since 50 Shades Darker was released by James in November 2017.

Despite its popularity, The Mister has fallen short of the sales of the 50 Shades books. Darker sold 86,000 physical copies in its first week on sale, and Grey sold almost 400,000 physical copies in the first week along. To date, Fifty Shades of Grey has sold six million copies and is the best selling novel of all time in Britain.

Given James’ fan base, it’s likely that sales are going to increase and readers are not going to be put off their dose of kink by either professional reviewers, or book snobs!

If you’ve already got your copy, please consider submitting a review for us to feature on site!



Leave your vote

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.