Bloggers Impact Book’s Success (Girl Who Reads)

March 11, 2012 by

There is a new success story in the Indie Publishing world: Fifty Shades trilogy by E. L. James. As first reported in the New York Times on Saturday the trilogy has been sold to Random House’s Vintage Books. The Sydney Morning Heraldcontinues the report, stating it was sold for more than $1 million. The series is erotica and will not be reviewed on this blog, but I did work with E. L. James while I was the marketing director of The Writer’s Coffee Shop. I also knew of the story, reading the first installment, when it was part of the online writing community.I mention this success story because it is exciting when an indie author makes it big and I congratulate E. L. James and the staff at The Writer’s Coffee Shop. I also mention it because of the role book bloggers played in the success of this series.

“Conversation about the book online has fed many of the sales,” comments Patricia Bostelman, vice president for marketing at Barnes & Noble, in the New York Times article March 10.

Bloggers were instrumental in getting the word out about Fifty Shades of Grey (tweet this) past the online writing community. The impact bloggers have on a book’s success is another facet of the changes in the publishing industry (tweet this). While now being reported to have sold more than 250,000 copies, a February 4 press release states 80,000 copies had been sold. At that point the only national mention was a January 9 article in Publisher’s Weekly. The 80,000 copies of Fifty Shades trilogy were sold due to the online world of bloggers, tweeters, and facebook users talking about it (tweet this).

Book bloggers take pride in your work and know you play an important role in whether a book is a success or not.
No pressure! footballer pictures

This was originally published on Girl Who Reads (click to visit)

 
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Donna Brown

By day a publicity assistant, by night an avid blogger and reader. I'm happiest when I'm surrounded by books and cats, with my husband by my side. Luckily, that's a pretty apt description of most days!

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Comments

  1. Lucy says:
    March 29, 2012 at 12:56 pm

    Now that's what I call a success! Ain't it? Amazing article! Cheers