Claim: Fifty Shades of Grey sold over 125 million copies by marketing directly at middle-aged housewives.

Fifty Shades of Grey is a 2011 erotic romance novel by British author E. L. James . It is the first instalment in the Fifty Shades trilogy that traces the deepening relationship between a college graduate , Anastasia Steele , and a young business magnate , Christian Grey . It is notable for its explicitly erotic scenes featuring elements of sexual practices involving bondage/discipline , dominance/submission , and sadism/masochism -LRB- BDSM -RRB- . Originally self-published as an ebook and a print-on-demand , publishing rights were acquired by Vintage Books in March 2012 .   Fifty Shades of Grey has topped best-seller lists around the world , selling over 125 million copies worldwide by June 2015 . It has been translated into 52 languages , and set a record in the United Kingdom as the fastest-selling paperback of all time . Critical reception of the book , however , has tended towards the negative , with the quality of its prose generally seen as poor . Universal Pictures and Focus Features produced a film adaptation , which was released on 13 February 2015 and also received generally unfavourable reviews .   The second and third volumes of the trilogy , Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed , were published in 2012 . Grey : Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian , a version of Fifty Shades of Grey being told from Christian 's point of view , was published in June 2015 .