Big hit for Da Vince Code author
I must be the only person in the United States who hasn't read this book...although both my siblings have copies! According to this New York Times story (registration required) on Dan Brown, the author of The Da Vince Code:
Since its release on March 18, 2003, "The Da Vinci Code," Mr. Brown's fourth novel, has sold roughly 25 million copies in 44 languages around the world, including nearly 10 million hardcover copies in the North America. That is 10 times the average sales of industry titans like John Grisham and Nora Roberts, making the book one of the fastest-selling adult novels of all time. While most books move into paperback within a year of their original publication in hardcover, Mr. Brown's publisher, Doubleday, still has not scheduled a paperback release of "The Da Vinci Code."
Starved fans, meanwhile, have snapped up everything else Mr. Brown has written: his three earlier novels, which produced barely a ripple when they were published, have now sold more than seven million copies, according to Nielsen BookScan. Based on traditional rates of author royalties, Mr. Brown has probably earned close to $50 million in the last two years from sales of his four books in the United States alone.