50 Shades of Grey trilogy goes from fan fiction to Random House

I'll pass I've never gotten the whole, spanking thing. My wife and I raised five kids and I've just always associated spanking with children. Also, I'm pretty certain I wouldn't want to try that with her. An old man walking around with a black eye, looks positively ridiculous.

tmesis said:

For some, I think it's the fact that it was originally fanfiction. I was involved in Harry Potter fandom several years ago, and there was a huge uproar when Cassandra Claire received money from fans of her fanfiction to reimburse a personal laptop she'd had stolen. Back then there was definite ill feeling towards anyone who derived profit from fanfiction, however indirectly, regardless of their intentions (Claire knew nothing of the laptop drive until she got the cheque.)

Fanfiction communities have an underlying moral code, and Claire (and EL James) have been perceived by some to have broken that code by capitalising on selling to a large fanbase forged through fanfiction. Having said that, I suspect that much of the ill feeling is strongly motivated by jealousy.

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You can't say there's an underlying moral code to fanfiction when every year there's like 10+ novels published by the major publishing houses that are new takes on everything from Wuthering Heights, to Sherlock Holmes to the Bronte's (Pride and Prejudice) to Frankenstein. I don't need to be schooled on it either about having the numbers filed off as I know it's a thing. This is sort of a common practice in the Twilight Fandom for fanfiction writers to file the numbers off their fanfiction and republish it as original fiction anyway as there are (or were Twilight fanfiction specific publishing houses for Twilight Fanfiction writers).

If you frequent the fandom it's not really an issue that she filed off the numbers just that she ripped off a much more popular fanfic that deals with the same topic of Bella and Edward and BDSM by tara sue me called The Submissive.

Omnific publishing and The Writers Cafe Shop (I Think and the later was James' original publisher) are the main ones for publishing Twilight Fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off they were created by fans in the Fandom for that specific purpose.

Phaeal said:

Duh. All us intellectuals know they're Hugh Jackmans.

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Um.... what IS a wolverine?????

Terie said:

AHEM. Quicklime, what have you been told about including beverage warnings?????

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"do you really think you should be drinking while typing," he murmured through full, pouty lips as he bit one and sighed, while taking a holy crap.



(am I in?)

fireluxlou said:

You can't say there's an underlying moral code to fanfiction when every year there's like 10+ novels published by the major publishing houses that are new takes on everything from Wuthering Heights, to Sherlock Holmes to the Bronte's (Pride and Prejudice) to Frankenstein. I don't need to be schooled on it either about having the numbers filed off as I know it's a thing. This is sort of a common practice in the Twilight Fandom for fanfiction writers to file the numbers off their fanfiction and republish it as original fiction anyway.

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I'm just saying that back in the day the 'filing the numbers off' thing was a huge no-no. I haven't been involved in a fandom for many years now, so I was really surprised to find that it's common to republish fanfic in Twilight fandom. That used to be considered--whether rightly or wrongly--Really Not Okay. That's all I mean by 'moral code'. And yes, I know it's not consistent.

Edit: Just seen your edit. Thanks for the info--I had no idea how much fandom has changed!

aruna said:

Um.... what IS a wolverine?????

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a sea-going Wolver



seriously a large member of the weasel family known for its ferocity, general bad attitude, and claws (hence the name for the x-men character) that looks like the love-child of a bear and a skunk

Smells like one, too.

tmesis said:

I'm just saying that back in the day the 'filing the numbers off' thing was a huge no-no. I haven't been involved in a fandom for many years now, so I was really surprised to find that it's common to republish fanfic in Twilight fandom. That used to be considered--whether rightly or wrongly--Really Not Okay. That's all I mean by 'moral code'. And yes, I know it's not consistent.

Edit: Just seen your edit. Thanks for the info--I had no idea how much fandom has changed!

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It also depends on the fandom you're part of. Like it used to be common in Sci-Fi to publish fanfiction in magazines in the 70s.

Peeking up through my eyelashes at the way the thread has split into two parts: the deliciously silly thread and the intense serious thread.

quicklime, after that holy crap, just keep your long index finger away from me, will ya?

tmesis said:

Fanfiction communities have an underlying moral code, and Claire (and EL James) have been perceived by some to have broken that code by capitalising on selling to a large fanbase forged through fanfiction. Having said that, I suspect that much of the ill feeling is strongly motivated by jealousy.

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I don't think it's jealousy. I think in the case of EL James, a lot of it is hive mentality. A few well spoken, if not completely personally unbiased words, from a few well placed fandom members and the whole hate fest exploded. That combined with ease of ridicule from behind a monitor. It became a mob. I find no other way to understand the bitterness toward this writer ,even before she hit big ,in comparison to others who've done the same thing.

tmesis said:

I'm just saying that back in the day the 'filing the numbers off' thing was a huge no-no.

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This isn't my experience. Quite a lot of published novels from the 80s and 90s are known to have started as fanfic, especially in fantasy/sci fi circles. Agents at some of the cons I went to actually encouraged it.

veinglory said:

This isn't my experience. Quite a lot of published novels from the 80s and 90s are known to have started as fanfic, especially in fantasy/sci fi circles. Agents at some of the cons I went to actually encouraged it.

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Interesting--I had no idea. Looks like my experiences of fandom were more limited than I thought!

Alitriona said:

I don't think it's jealousy. I think in the case of EL James, a lot of it is hive mentality. A few well spoken, if not completely personally unbiased words, from a few well placed fandom members and the whole hate fest exploded. That combined with ease of ridicule from behind a monitor. It became a mob. I find no other way to understand the bitterness toward this writer ,even before she hit big ,in comparison to others who've done the same thing.

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Agree. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen negative Amazon/Goodreads reviews that being with, 'I bought this because of all the rave reviews,' which is quite a stretch, because there are something like 2500 negative reviews up on Amazon now. People won't admit they bought the book because they bought into the hype and now they want to rant about it and be a part of the 'movement', as it were. That's how it seems to me anyway.

I couldn't get on with the sample pages so I haven't read it, but I don't hate on E L James. She wrote the thing; she got it published; she didn't force people to rush out and buy it like it was the second coming (ahem). One look at those sample pages would have been more than enough to let people know what sort of writing they were in for so people have only got themselves to blame for buying it.

lorna_w said:

Peeking up through my eyelashes at the way the thread has split into two parts: the deliciously silly thread and the intense serious thread.

quicklime, after that holy crap, just keep your long index finger away from me, will ya?

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oh christ, is that a phrase that pops up in there a lot?

I hear "long index finger" and I'm thinking ET.....the next stop in my train of thought is "curl that finger upward a bit, see if you can make her belly button light up."


At which point the thing sounds considerably less erotic.

honestly, I only read the "look inside," glanced at the two pages of the second book at Wal-Mart, and read some of the hysterically funny one-star reviews at amazon, but apparently yes, it is oft-repeated. Check out the highest rated one-star review for more on repeated phrases. "Peek" "Delicious" and "intense" also qualify.

hmmmm....reminds me of the one Anita Blake book I read.


but hey, it is clearly getting the Pastor's wife horned up and pushing her buttons, so more power to both her and the author. (maybe our pastor has tiny, stumpy sausage-finger....I'll have to check next time we shake hands)

In other news: Proof that writing a book in a month and getting a book deal can be done!

EL James, Author Of 'Fifty Shades Of Grey', Convinces Husband To Write Novel - And Now He Has A Book Deal

The husband of best-selling publishing phenomenon EL James has landed his own major book deal - with a novel he wrote in a month.

Niall Leonard, a TV screenwriter whose credits include Hornblower, Wire In The Blood and Monarch Of The Glen, will publish his book for young adults later this year.

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I say good for him but he's got a heck of a legacy to live up to.

Those TV shows listed were all very well received, so that at least is encouraging - he must know a thing or two about stringing words together...

Kado said:

Those TV shows listed were all very well received, so that at least is encouraging - he must know a thing or two about stringing words together...

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One would hope. I saw another article that had a sample of his writing from the book.

...can I say it gives me hope that one day I'll be published?

At least it can be said he does know how to write under pressure.

I hate that he will have the specter of his wife's success hanging over his head, calling into question his own validity for achieving success that isn't riding on his wife's coat tails in this book deal but... it's going to happen.

Alitriona said:

Like what happened with Twilight, there are people picking up books who haven't read in years. They are rediscovering a love of reading. That can only be a good thing if they keep it up with other books.

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Yes, that's what the med tech and I talked about. She wishes she'd done more reading as a child - she said it wasn't part of her home - and she's pleased her kids have found some books they like. She said she hasn't read a book in years, before this.

Since she's enjoying it, maybe she'll pick up another book. Maybe one by an AWer.

bearilou said:

One would hope. I saw another article that had a sample of his writing from the book.

...can I say it gives me hope that one day I'll be published?

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Could you post a link to that article? I'm curious.

Silver-Midnight said:

Could you post a link to that article? I'm curious.

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Here it is!

While I love to encourage people to read, I won't go so far as saying it doesn't matter what you read, so long as you read. Some years ago my wife had a patient who prided himself on the fact that he read all the time, but his reading list read like a bad joke. If it wasn't really vile porn, it was things like the Turner Diaries, just foul, anti-Semitic, anti-minority, hate-filled trash. And this was all the guy read.

He was seeing her by court order for anti-social behavior, but even though he was highly intelligent, he just couldn't understand that what he reading was contributing to his mental state. Granted, this is an extreme example, but really, if you're not reading to... I don't know, improve yourself in some way, why read at all?

RJLeahy said:

Granted, this is an extreme example, but really, if you're not reading to... I don't know, improve yourself in some way, why read at all?

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Entertainment. For me, it's escapism.

bearilou said:

Here it is!

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Thanks.

Alitriona said:

Entertainment. For me, it's escapism.

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+1