WHIPPING UP SALES

S&M trilogy cuts losses, lifts traffic at Barnes & Noble

Wanted: attractive, leatherbound books — especially if they’ve taken a few nicks!

Lusty demand for the raunchy “50 Shades of Grey” series tickled sales and pinched losses at Barnes & Noble — even as sales of the book retailer’s Nook reading device were cuffed by stiff competition.

Shares of B&N — which have been spanked mercilessly since May on worries that the Nook is bound to get a thrashing from Amazon’s Kindle this Christmas — fell 48 cents yesterday, or 3.9 percent, to $11.87.

Shares in founder Len Riggio’s company have eased 18 percent his year.

The “50 Shades” whips-and chains romance trilogy — whose female protagonist thrills to being tied up and abused by a hunky, sadistic tycoon — was “a big piece” of B&N’s firstquarter business, according to Mitchell Klip per, CEO of B&N’s retail division.

While other blockbusters including “The Hunger Games” and the “Harry Potter” books saw brisk sales, insatiable appetites for the saucy S&M books “had the biggest impact on the numbers,” Klipper said.

But B&N also got a rise from the pain felt by former archrival Borders, whose 2011 store liquidations sent shoppers to B&N’s 700 stores, lifting overall revenue 2.5 percent to $1.45 billion.

“Traffic was up in our stores for the first time in many years,” Klipper told analysts on a conference call yesterday. He added, however, that he expects the “halo effect” from the shuttered Borders stores will fade through the rest of the year.

For the quarter ended July 28, B&N narrowed its loss to $41 million, or 78 cents a share, from $56.6 million, or 99 cents, a year earlier.

Less titillating for Wall Street investors were sales of the company’s costly Nook, which at $192 million were unchanged from a year ago as prices for the devices were cut and some hot sellers ran into production issues.

On the positive side, sales of digital content soared 46 percent as customers downloaded more titles — including those of the sizzling “50 Shades” variety.

B&N said it also got its results goosed as it expanded into educational toys and games.