Fifty Shades of Grey author E.L. James is having a really good month thanks to the $20 million royalty check she just received from publishing company Vintage Books. As we reported back in June, E.L James makes roughly $1 million a week from the blockbuster sales of her sexy trilogy. Since publishing companies pay royalties once every six months, James is just now seeing the first taste of her explosive success that happened when Fifty Shades mania swept the nation earlier this summer. And the money machine doesn't appear to be slowing down any time soon…
"Fifty Shades" Author E.L. James / Mike Coppola/Getty Images
The first major paycheck E.L. James received was a seven figured advance paid by Vintage Books to win the rights to distribute the Fifty Shades trilogy. On top of her advance, James is entitled to a 7% royalty for every paperback sold and 25% of every ebook. In June, at the height of the trilogy's popularity, Fifty Shades held the top four slots on every major sales chart (the fourth slot was the combined trilogy three-pack). This equated to roughly $1.35 million in royalties for James, PER WEEK! As of September 15, 2012, Fifty Shades has sold more than 45 million copies across all formats, in 37 different countries.
$20 million just represents the royalties for books sold between March and August 2012. Considering it is almost October and her books are still dominating sales charts, it's likely that James will be set to receive another large royalty check in February. Not to mention the $5 million she has already received for the film rights from Universal/Focus Features. How much money do you think E.L. James will eventually make off her Fifty Shades of Grey success? $50 million? $100 million? Whatever the final total amount, pretty impressive for someone who started out writing Twilight Fan Fiction for free! And it makes me want to start writing an erotic novel myself right now!
