Fifty Shades of Grey Now Available in Athens

Have you heard about it - the latest little book that could - Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James? The book that has suburban housewives blushing is now available in paperback locally.

While the genre is not one I read (it's erotica), I have found the story of its success interesting. Perhaps it is my small personal connection to it or maybe it is the implications it may have on publishing, but I'm drawn to reading almost every news item I see.

From Fan Fiction to Published Work

It is no secret this series began as fan fiction. It is through an online writing community that I first came across this story. Of course, it had a different title and the names of the characters were different. Everyone was talking about it and curiosity finally won out. It was quite the discussion topic in the writing group - everything from the writing to whether the main male character is truly a Dominant. I found myself skimming most of the chapter updates because of the amount of sex. When I moved on from that writing group, I lost interest in the story and never finished it.

For a short while I worked for a small independent publisher based in Australia. This publisher obtained the rights to what would become the Fifty Shades trilogy. The night E. L. James announced on Twitter it was being published, it trended worldwide for several hours. For those not very familiar with Twitter, it takes a lot of tweets to have something trend in a particular location, let alone worldwide.

With no national media or the more traditional methods of publicity, Fifty Shades became a success largely through bloggers and word-of-mouth. National attention did not begin until January of this year, eight months after the release of the first book in the series. A mention in Publisher's Weekly, which reported approximately 30,000 copies had been sold, shined a more focused spotlight on the series. Within a month, The Writer's Coffee Shop reported 80,000 copies had been sold and subsequently Fifty Shades of Grey made its debut on the New York Times' Bestsellers List.

From Book to Silver Screen

Its rapid rise to success did not go unnoticed. A March 10 article in the New York Times announced Vintage Books, publisher of Stieg Larson's Millennium series , had acquired the rights to the trilogy for more than $1 million.

However, negotiations did not end there. Soon, E. L. James found herself holding court with top Hollywood executives. Universal Pictures and Focus Features won the bidding war, which reportedly included at least one offer of $5 million for the movie rights. However, with its many X rated scenes, it is unknown if it will ever make it to the silver screen.

Prior to the April 4 re-release of Fifty Shades of Grey, a majority of the book sales had been for ebooks. Is it because the first edition was from a print on demand publisher and, therefore, easier to acquire in digital form? Or as many of the anonymous comments in newspapers around the country may indicate, women rather not have their neighbors knowing what they are reading? If it is the latter, how likely will women flock to movie theaters and ask for a ticket?

Whether you read the book or not, the story surrounding the book is intriguing for the possible implications to the publishing industry. As major publishers have become, at least slightly, more interested in self-published titles, will we now see agents and acquisition editors searching fan fiction websites for possible bestsellers?

A number of formerly fan fiction serials already have made their way into published works through self-publishing and independent presses. If you are interested in other titles that were popular as fan fiction and now published, here's a short list:

• Sempre by J. M. Darhower
• Gabriel's Inferno by Sylvain Reynard
• Slave by Sherri Hayes
• Take the Cake by Sandra Wright

In Other Book News

J. K. Rowling revealed the title of her next novel: The Casual Vacancy. Rowling's first book since the conclusion of the Harry Potter series is scheduled for a September release from Little, Brown and Company. Targeted for an adult audience, it "appears a far cry from the wizardry and sorcery of Harry Potter and Hogwarts" according to the Huffington Post.