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  ===Sales===
  Sales performance of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series in the ''New York Times'' combined print and e-book fiction bestseller list in 2011 between the airing of the ''Game of Thrones'' pilot episode and the publication of ''A Dance with Dragons''.
  The reported overall sales figures of the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' series vary. ''The New Yorker'' said in April 2011 (before the publication of ''A Dance with Dragons'') that more than 15 million ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' books had been sold worldwide, a figure repeated by ''The Globe and Mail'' in July 2011. Reuters reported in September 2013 that the books including print, digital and audio versions have sold more than 24 million copies in North America. ''The Wall Street Journal'' reported more than six million sold copies in North America by May 2011. ''USA Today'' reported 8.5 million copies in print and digital overall in July 2011, and over 12 million sold copies in print in December 2011. The series has been translated into more than 20 languages; ''USA Today'' reported the fifth book to be translated into over 40 languages. ''Forbes'' estimated that Martin was the 12th highest-earning author worldwide in 2011 at $15 million.
  Martin's publishers initially expected ''A Game of Thrones'' to be a best-seller, but the first installment did not even reach any lower positions in bestseller list. This left Martin unsurprised, as it is "a fool's game to think anything is going to be successful or to count on it". However, the book slowly won the passionate advocacy of independent booksellers and the book's popularity grew by word of mouth. The series' popularity skyrocketed in subsequent volumes, with the second and third volume making ''The New York Times'' Best Seller lists in 1999 and 2000, respectively. The series gained Martin's old writings new attention, and Martin's American publisher Bantam Spectra was to reprint his out-of-print solo novels.
  The fourth installment, ''A Feast for Crows'', was an immediate best-seller at its 2005 release, hitting number one on "The New York Times" hardcover fiction bestseller list November 27, 2005, which for a fantasy novel suggested that Martin's books were attracting mainstream readers. The paperback edition of ''A Game of Thrones'' reached its 34th printing in 2010, surpassing the one million mark. Before it even premiered, the TV series had boosted sales of the book series, with ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' approaching triple-digit growth in year-on-year sales. Bantam was looking forward to seeing the tie-ins boost sales further, and Martin's British publisher Harper Voyager expected readers to rediscover their other epic fantasy literature. With a reported 4.5 million copies of the first four volumes in print in early 2011, the four volumes re-appeared on the paperback fiction bestseller lists in the second quarter of 2011.
  At its point of publication in July 2011, ''A Dance with Dragons'' was in its sixth print with more than 650,000 hardbacks in print. It also had the highest single and first-day sales of any new fiction title published in 2011 at that point, with 170,000 hardcovers, 110,000 e-books, and 18,000 audio books reportedly sold on the first day. ''A Dance with Dragons'' reached the top of ''The New York Times'' bestseller list on July 31, 2011. Unlike most other big titles, the fifth volume sold more physical than digital copies early on, but nevertheless, Martin became the tenth author to sell 1 million Amazon Kindle e-books. All five volumes and the four-volume boxed set were among the top 100 best-selling books in the United States in 2011 and 2012.
  The TV series has contributed significantly boosting sales of both the books and collectibles like box-sets, merchandise, and other items. The TV series also contributed in increasing the geographic coverage of the books, introducing new customers in emerging countries like India and Brazil to the book series. All this has significantly increased the overall book sales. As of April 2019, the book series has sold 90million copies worldwide.