Fifty Shades of Grey publisher awards $5K bonus to staff

Thanks to Fifty Shades of Grey, employees at Random House Inc. are seeing green.

Every worker, from sales to editorial to distribution, will receive a $5,000 US bonus, prorated for those who joined Random House during the year.

In a companywide letter to US employees sent Monday, CEO Markus Dohle noted the publisher's "unprecedented success" in 2012.

EL James' erotic trilogy has sold more than 35 million copies in the U.S. alone.Random House also released such bestsellers as Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl and Robert Caro's The Passage of Power.

Random House spokesman Stuart Applebaum said Monday that while some employees have existing bonus plans, the across-the-board payment was "unique" for the company.