E. L. James E. L. James Erika Leonard (née Mitchell; born 7 March 1963), known by her pen name E. L. James, is an English author. She wrote the bestselling erotic romance trilogy "Fifty Shades of Grey", "Fifty Shades Darker", and "Fifty Shades Freed", along with the companion novels "" and ""; and under the name Snowqueen's Icedragon the Twilight fan fiction "Master of the Universe" that was the basis for the Fifty Shades trilogy. The combined novels have sold over 125 million copies worldwide, over 35 million copies in the United States and set the record in the United Kingdom as the
Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy, have been reissued (this time without pseudonyms) to meet the higher demand. On 1 August 2012, Amazon UK announced that it had sold more copies of "Fifty Shades of Grey" than it had the entire "Harry Potter" series combined, making E. L. James its best-selling author, replacing J. K. Rowling, though worldwide the "Harry Potter" series sold more than 450 million copies compared with "Fifty Shades of Grey"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s sales of 60 million copies. "Fifty Shades of Grey" has topped best-seller lists around the world, including those of the United Kingdom and the United States. The series had sold over