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

[Bubastes]

She's already hit the NYT and USA Today lists with her self-pub offering. Now that it's coming out in paper, I hope she finds even more readers. I'm thrilled for her!

[Silver-Midnight]

Originally Posted by Bubastes

She's already hit the NYT and USA Today lists with her self-pub offering. Now that it's coming out in paper, I hope she finds even more readers. I'm thrilled for her!

That's awesome.

[elindsen]

I'm currently reading 50. At the scene where they discuss the contract. Some of the writing is driving me nuts. If another head cocks or another lip is bitten I will go on the warpath. But other than repetetive phrases and too many senetces starting with "I," I actually like the story. I hear it goes downhill though. That Ana loses her will and cries when spanked. (If only I could get one myself...)

[Pinguicha]

Originally Posted by Squinkies

I'm currently reading 50. At the scene where they discuss the contract. Some of the writing is driving me nuts. If another head cocks or another lip is bitten I will go on the warpath. But other than repetetive phrases and too many senetces starting with "I," I actually like the story. I hear it goes downhill though. That Ana loses her will and cries when spanked. (If only I could get one myself...)

Oh, the contract! I talked to a friend who's very into BDSM and she said, and I quote:

If you're going lifestyle 24/7 with no safewords, you can do - just google for BDSM contracts to see examples - but you have to be pretty extremely serious to get to that point. Whereas in 50 Shades of Bullshit I think he makes her sign before they do anything at all? Is that right? Faiiil.

They have safewords and they haven't done anything, so in an "everyday" BDSM situation, they wouldn't even need to have a contract. I get the non-disclosure agreement (Christian is famous after all), but the contract? No.

Now, I'm not really into BDSM, but I've been to a fetish club (aforementioned friend was a member and she took us there), talked to some people while sharing cigarettes (bad habit, I know), and their lifestyle is completely different from what's portrayed in the book.

For instance, Christian Grey is only into BDSM because he was so broken and that lifestyle saved him from himself. I don't know if other people felt that way, but I thought it made the BDSM lifestyle to be very... how should I put it... "dark" and an "escape", whereas I've met a lot of healthy people who are into BDSM simply because they like it. Heck, I talked to a male transvestite who was there with his wife and he jokingly said he was going to get the whip because he was talking to me. He was not brooding or tortured or anything - he was plain nice.

50 Shades of Grey makes you think very bad things about BDSM when it's not necessarily that way. Some people are merely into it because they enjoy it, not because of their dark, dark past.

[Mustafa]

Originally Posted by Pinguicha

50 Shades of Grey makes you think very bad things about BDSM when it's not necessarily that way. Some people are merely into it because they enjoy it, not because of their dark, dark past.

I'm going to disagree with you. Not that I like FSOG, but you can't say that the author was wrong in portraying those characters that way. You might have met people who were quite happy and did BDSM for enjoyment, but there could easily be people who do it for other reasons (like a dark dark past).

There are prostitutes who claim they like the work. And there are ex-prostitutes who say they only did that work because they were very damaged. If I wrote a book with prostitutes and made them damaged, I wouldn't be doing anything wrong.

FSOG is a plageristic pile of fan-fiction dreck, but the author can make her characters (or SM's characters) do anything she wants and not be responsible for painting an entire lifestyle a certain way. She's painting that lifestyle in the way it is experienced by her characters.

[RiseBeauty]

Personally, every time I read the original fanfic title "Masters of the Universe" I flash to Dolph Lundgren in short-shorts waving a huge sword....[/QUOTE]

So did I! I thought I was the only one who remembered that movie...(and those awful shorts )!

[elindsen]

Maybe 50 shades is Dolph fanfic?

[aruna]

I haven't been paying too much attention to this drama, so I may be posting something here that everyone already knows -- but, following a couple of links on a rainy day with nothing better to do (except write!) I found this, which practically tells the story of how she started out, and what kind of a person she is.

[Silver-Midnight]

I kind of just browsed through that. The thing that struck me was the fact that there's another publisher out there doing what TWCS is doing(doubling as a fan fic archive and publisher). That was the shocking thing for me. (It said it's called Omnific Publishing; the fan fiction archive is Twilighted.)

[Pinguicha]

Yes, Omnific did the same as TWCS: published fanfictions with a high review count as original novels.

Someone assembled a list of all the Twilight Fanfics that were converted for publishing. It's on this page... Just scroll down to a post by a hope4more. The number is... quite astounding, to say the least.

Point is, most of those novels were either published by TWCS or Omnific.

[Silver-Midnight]

Originally Posted by Pinguicha

Yes, Omnific did the same as TWCS: published fanfictions with a high review count as original novels.

Someone assembled a list of all the Twilight Fanfics that were converted for publishing. It's on this page... Just scroll down to a post by a hope4more. The number is... quite astounding, to say the least.

Point is, most of those novels were either published by TWCS or Omnific.

Wow.

That list was a lot longer than I expected.

Do you think that any of those will attempt to go agents after the contract is up? It just makes me wonder if the whole "Fifty Shades" thing was a one time deal.

[Pinguicha]

Originally Posted by Silver-Midnight

Wow.

That list was a lot longer than I expected.

Do you think that any of those will attempt to go agents after the contract is up? It just makes me wonder if the whole "Fifty Shades" thing was a one time deal.

God, I hope not. The thought is terrifying.

[Silver-Midnight]

Originally Posted by Pinguicha

God, I hope not. The thought is terrifying.

Unfortunately, only time will tell.

[The Kidd]

I flash to Dolph Lundgren in short-shorts waving a huge sword....

I was so about to say it... The title confused me so much because I picture the old He-Man cartoon when I hear 'Masters of the Universe'.

[robiiehood]

I had no idea! thanks for the info!

[aruna]

What I found interesting was that she was already a big name in her own circles before the book took off. To someone like me who isn't into fan fiction or Twilight and its spinoffs, the 50shades pheonomenon took me by surprise, and it seemed like an overnight success; as if she came out of nowhere. It's somewhat of a releif to see that it had been brewing and growing long, long before; that there had even been a convention just for her! That it was no fluke; she pushed herself forward. I suppose this confirms that pushiness pays. I didn't read the whole story, just the start; it began to get too teenagerish for my liking. But I do get that this was a success waiting to happen. Not overnight at all.

[Alitriona]

Originally Posted by aruna

I haven't been paying too much attention to this drama, so I may be posting something here that everyone already knows -- but, following a couple of links on a rainy day with nothing better to do (except write!) I found this, which practically tells the story of how she started out, and what kind of a person she is.

Please keep in mind this is a one sided account from a disgruntled ex-friend, who was not universally loved in fandom for some of her behavior either. Hardly reliable information to judge what kind of person EL James is.

[aruna]

To tell you the truth, this whole "fandom" mindset makes me gag.

[Alitriona]

Originally Posted by Silver-Midnight

I kind of just browsed through that. The thing that struck me was the fact that there's another publisher out there doing what TWCS is doing(doubling as a fan fic archive and publisher). That was the shocking thing for me. (It said it's called Omnific Publishing; the fan fiction archive is Twilighted.)

Disclaimer: I'm published by Omnific as I've previously said on this site.

Twilighted and Omnific is owned by the same person, however:

Omnific is not and never was a fanfiction archive. It's a separate small publisher with its first titles released in 2010. They are not maintained from the same site as with TWCS.

Twilighted is a separate archive site and a number of Omnific's writers have never had ff connections or ever written fanfiction. Others, like me, have written ff but haven't published any rewritten versions through Omnific or anywhere else.

Omnific is a mixture of titles that were previously ff and titles that were never ff. Mine in the latter group. Titles I've read that were previously ff are edited, in many cases extensively over the course of years, changing pov, losing thousands or tens of thousands of words from stories that were already vastly different from source in the first place.

[Silver-Midnight]

Originally Posted by Alitriona

Disclaimer: I'm published by Omnific as I've previously said on this site.

Twilighted and Omnific is owned by the same person, however:

Omnific is not and never was a fanfiction archive. It's a separate small publisher with its first titles released in 2010. They are not maintained from the same site as with TWCS.

Twilighted is a separate archive site and a number of Omnific's writers have never had ff connections or ever written fanfiction. Others, like me, have written ff but haven't published any rewritten versions through Omnific or anywhere else.

Omnific is a mixture of titles that were previously ff and titles that were never ff. Mine in the latter group. Titles I've read that were previously ff are edited, in many cases extensively over the course of years, changing pov, losing thousands or tens of thousands of words from stories that were already vastly different from source in the first place.

Oh, okay. Thank you. I didn't know.

[Anaquana]

Originally Posted by Mustafa

I'm going to disagree with you. Not that I like FSOG, but you can't say that the author was wrong in portraying those characters that way. You might have met people who were quite happy and did BDSM for enjoyment, but there could easily be people who do it for other reasons (like a dark dark past).

There are prostitutes who claim they like the work. And there are ex-prostitutes who say they only did that work because they were very damaged. If I wrote a book with prostitutes and made them damaged, I wouldn't be doing anything wrong.

FSOG is a plageristic pile of fan-fiction dreck, but the author can make her characters (or SM's characters) do anything she wants and not be responsible for painting an entire lifestyle a certain way. She's painting that lifestyle in the way it is experienced by her characters.

Mustafa, I completely agree with you that there are people in real life who get into BDSM from a very unhealthy place, but I think it's fair to criticize this trope in fiction because it's one of the only tropes that mainstream people are seeing (FSOG, The Story of Ugh, The Secretary). Just like it's fair to criticize books with weak-willed female protagonists who must always be rescued by a man. Or books which feature only white characters. Or only male characters. The writers aren't "wrong" to write books like that since those situations do exist in real life, but when that's the main narrative that people see, it has a very real effect on people in the real world. I know people who are into the BDSM lifestyle who have gotten flak over it due to FSOG and people assuming only "broken" people are into "that sort of thing".

[Chrissy]

I was SO curious that I downloaded it. The book was featured on a local news radio channel and TV channel recently in my area (first time I've ever heard of a book on the radio, and it's becoming obvious that I need to learn something from this.....)

So far, I'm incredibly annoyed with the writing. Yes, as someone said, re: the lip biting. The cliches are

The thing that's keeping me reading is that I'm a total newbie as regards the BDZQX-whatever. So in between the cliches I'm kind of like:


But, a trilogy of this? Seriously?

[Phaeal]

Originally Posted by Chrissy

I was SO curious that I downloaded it. The book was featured on a local news radio channel and TV channel recently in my area (first time I've ever heard of a book on the radio, and it's becoming obvious that I need to learn something from this.....)

Which is why I listen to NPR.

[Chrissy]

Originally Posted by Phaeal

Which is why I listen to NPR.

Indeed.

*fiddles with radio dials*



Oh, and I have to add on more thing about this book that is bugging me. The MC's refers to her subconscious talking to her, of hearing her subconscious, of her subconscious doing/acting/behaving in various ways.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but isn't the subconscious below the level of consciousness? How can one be conscious of one's subconscious?

[Bubastes]

Originally Posted by Chrissy

Oh, and I have to add on more thing about this book that is bugging me. The MC's refers to her subconscious talking to her, of hearing her subconscious, of her subconscious doing/acting/behaving in various ways.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but isn't the subconscious below the level of consciousness? How can one be conscious of one's subconscious?

Ding ding ding, we have a winnah! Between her subconscious and her inner goddess talking to her, it's astounding how she can have so many voices in her head and still be TSTL.