Fifty Shades

[bellamyspiano]

AND that. She works for the BBC. *tut tut tut*

[PhallenFoenix]

It's possible that you have a better sense of chronology on the book popularity than I do. I would have to do some research to dispute anything you said, and frankly, the subject is not worth it.

All I know for sure is that literally the first think about the book I learned was that it was twilight fanfiction, literally before I know about the bdsm subject matter. Perhaps my experience is skewed.

And yeah, being married to a producer certainly helps with publicity.

[bellamyspiano]

Hey it's okay

Of course, I do agree also that the Twilight side of things has helped in sales

[ROBERTS]

Yawn. Ernest, please, go write some more and SAVE us!

[Demosthenes]

The success of this series just proves the dire state of popular literature.

[ernestgreene]

I'm, literally, writing as fast as I can. I'll give credit where it's due. The utter awfulness of this thing finally motivated me to get back to writing some long-form fiction. It will be a bit softer than I'd naturally go, as I'd like to make some money on it, but I'll guarantee that it's both more realistic and more believable than the trash that's making all the money.

Of course, even turned down a few notches, it's still hotter. I'm just kicking myself for not doing this sooner.

[ROBERTS]

If what I've seen so far is any indication, there's a book coming which will need a titanium sleeve with asbestos liner....
We here are SO accustomed to the extreme edge of this fetish/fantasy world, we forget just how vanilla the rest of humanity on average really is..especially most of America. When I view this through the filter of your average vanilla devotee, it seems downright perverse..50 Shades may be worthy of ridicule..as I heartily agree...but is IS a crafted torpedo right to the target audience. The sexually bored middle class Mommies. The numbers agree with me.
I too have some lighter fare in me which is coming..I know the DoFantasy crowd has no particular interest in such lightweight fetish and romantic drama, so I won't bore anyone here with it. But it is coming, and it will be online somewhere. And we'll just see if more "safe" content means a wider appeal and bigger numbers. I'm going to find out.

[PhallenFoenix]

Side note - Earnest, is there any way I could email you and have a discussion about being published as an author of bdsm content? I have a lot of questions I would love to ask someone who's been there in a serious way, and I don't think the forum is the best (snicker) forum for such a discussion.

[Demosthenes]

If what I've seen so far is any indication, there's a book coming which will need a titanium sleeve with asbestos liner....
We here are SO accustomed to the extreme edge of this fetish/fantasy world, we forget just how vanilla the rest of humanity on average really is..especially most of America. When I view this through the filter of your average vanilla devotee, it seems downright perverse..50 Shades may be worthy of ridicule..as I heartily agree...but is IS a crafted torpedo right to the target audience. The sexually bored middle class Mommies. The numbers agree with me.
I too have some lighter fare in me which is coming..I know the DoFantasy crowd has no particular interest in such lightweight fetish and romantic drama, so I won't bore anyone here with it. But it is coming, and it will be online somewhere. And we'll just see if more "safe" content means a wider appeal and bigger numbers. I'm going to find out.

I don't begrudge the bored housewives their fun, I just don't think any of us should pretend its commercial success makes it a worthwhile series of books (from a literary point of view). The standard of popular literature has really dropped to grotesquely shameful level.

[ROBERTS]

Well no, I absolutely agree, the ongoing Promotion of Mediocrity is marching us all relentlessly into a state of mind numbing averageness. I'm not quite sure if this is a result of the overall deliberate dumbing down of two entire generations, or humanity simply de-evolving on it's own due to total lack of imagination in society over the past couple of decades..but it is clear, we as an intelligent literate species are in dire peril.
All one need do is look at what books have recently been grabbed up by film producers and made into movies of a quality even more dubious than the originals..beginning with the absolutely awful "Twilight" series. Just...uuuuh.
"Hunger Games." Oh please. I grew up on Harlan Ellison. Issac Asimov. Arthur C. Clarke. Goog god, I used to think Steven King was a bit shallow, and never really liked HIS stuff. I'm still a fence-sitter on Michael Crichton...not sure if he's great or not.
This current stuff? It can't hold my interest past the first few pages. Last book I picked up and could not put down was "the Road", the pure black of it simply swallowed me. Considering it's autrhors' connections to the Rand Institute think tanks and US Defense Department, that credibility made it all the more terrible. But I digress...
Yes, 50 Shades is junk lit. The stuff of C grade paperbacks. This used to be the fare of the once booming small size romance novels so big in the 80's and 90's, with their thinly veiled porn subject matter and steamy scenes. These were also specific to the Bored Mommy audience, and they put millions into the pockets of publishers..so much so that illustrators of merit made a handsome buck churning out vivid paintings of dashing rogues and swashbucklers ravishing bent backward maidens in torn blouses with looks of distressed rapture awash across reddened cheeks. There was big bucks flyin all around that industry. Those dollars have simply jumped over to the "50 Shades" thing. And 50 Shds has simply stepped into the void left by the romance paperbacks.
But High Art? Not. It's popcorn. It's Porn Lite. Nothing more.