Bestseller, E L James | featured news

'Freed' at last: What was the top-selling book of 2012 on Amazon? Fifty Shades Freed, the third book in E.L. James' erotic trilogy. No. 2 was Gillian Flynn's twisty thriller, Gone Girl. (Amazon did not count the first and second books in James' trilogy because they were released in 2011.) Read the entire list, which includes print and digital sales.

The story of 2012 in publishing was the story of "Fifty Shades of Grey," in more ways than one. E L James' erotic trilogy was easily the year's biggest hit, selling more than 35 million copies in the U.S. alone and topping bestseller lists for months. Rival publishers hurried to sign up similar books and debates started over who should star in the planned film version. Through James' books and how she wrote them, the general public was educated in the worlds of romance/erotica, start-up publishing and "fan fiction."