50 Shades Of Grey phenomenon? Mommy porn outsells Potter and Twilight

[Dream]

http://www.examiner.com/article/fift...ling-book-ever

This is the first time I've heard of this. Apparently these books, starting with 50 Shades of Grey, have become the next book phenomenon and holds the title of fastest-selling novel beating Harry Potter and Twilight. They are now even going to be turned into movies.

I can understand Harry Potter and Twilight getting popular. One has a boy learning he is a wizard and going to a magic school, while the other has a vampire and a teenage girl falling in love with each other.

But this? I glanced at the plot of the first book it looks like it is just romance with a bunch of BDSM sex. Amusingly this series started out as Twilight fan fiction.

How did these books get so huge? Has anyone here read them or seen others reading these books?

[Serial thread killer]

I tried reading it, but its so boring.

[Deckerd]

It says all kinds of depressing things about female readership.

[Bob The Skutter]

That they're kinky buggers who aren't getting enough at home?

Apparently the writer says it's her mid-life crisis writ-large.

[Dream]

So this was Meyer's (Twilight author) reaction to these books.

When MTV News caught up with the writer on the set of "The Host," she told us she doesn't know much about "Fifty Shades," but she supports James in her endeavor.

"I haven't read it. I mean, that's really not my genre, not my thing," she said with a laugh. "I've heard about it; I haven't really gotten into it that much. Good on her — she's doing well. That's great!"

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/168...ie-meyer.jhtml

[Bob The Skutter]

No, EL James...

From the Guardian

The book is "my midlife crisis writ large", Erika Leonard, the middle-aged British woman behind the pseudonym EL James, has recently admitted, adding that she put "all my fantasies in there".

[FPAlpha]

Doesn't surprise me in the least.. i always had the theory that if you have a product that appeals to women you have an automatic success.

Titanic, Twillight, Harry Potter (to a great deal) and now erotic novels are all mainly read/seen by women/girls and if you can energize that customer base you are doing well.

[Chemahkuu]

Twilight itself is basically Meyer's sexual fantasies in paper form, only fitting that it inspires something similar in another rather repressed individual. I read the wiki article on the plot for both the main book and trilogy plans and just...this is outselling two major franchises? can't they just google some fetish porn?

[Kestrel]

I think my favorite part of the whole thing is that it's Twilight fanfic with the serial numbers filed off.

[scnj]

Many of the people I know who have bought it were either buying it to laugh at it, or buying it to see what the fuss is about. My mum's reading it for... well, I'll just say she's reading it and save everyone (including myself) the imagery.

The point is, it's the only pure smut novel series I've seen being sold in normal supermarkets like Asda and Tesco. My theory is that the initial buzz came from the internet stories about the sexy Twilight fan fiction, and as soon as the idea of this being the next big thing caught on, people bought it, actually making it the next big thing.

[Gaith]

Common TrekBBS obsession: trucks that turn into robots that punch other robots.

50 Shades' readers' obsession: super-rich, smokin' hot people having lots and lots of mind-blowing sex.

... Anyone else feel as though we BBSers just might be on the wrong team here?

[Bob The Skutter]

Never! Sex isn't all it's cracked up to be, but robots punching each other? That never fails to deliver.

[Ethros]

Bob the Skutter wrote:

---

Never! Sex isn't all it's cracked up to be, but robots punching each other? That never fails to deliver.

erm, have you seen the last two Transformers movies?



I got the book cheap just to see what all the fuss was about. I haven't read the second or third books, so I can't comment on them, but as for the first, unless you find a blowjob to be particularly shocking I don't really get what the big deal is.

The most "dirty" part was when at one point after said blowjob he came in her mouth. The rest of the "scenes" are all fairly vanilla in what they get up to. In fact after about the first two the sex scenes become pretty boring really.




As for why it's done well, its just down the to advent of Trending on the likes of Twitter and Facebook that simply wasn't there say 5 years ago. People hearing about it from others and wondering, like me I guess, what the big deal is. And again the price doesn't hurt, its not like its a big hardback on sale for £15, I got mine on Amazon for under £4, and I've seen it in various supermarket for the same price.

[Mr. Adventure]

Well, all of those Potter actors are going to need some work now...

[Gaith]

Ethros wrote:

---

I got the book cheap just to see what all the fuss was about. I haven't read the second or third books, so I can't comment on them, but as for the first, unless you find a blowjob to be particularly shocking I don't really get what the big deal is.

The primary appeal of the book seems to lie in the psychological implications of bdsm, not in pushing the limits of sex acts for their own sake. It's a case of, forgive me, "more than meets the eye."