50 Shades of Grey

[Jo Zebedee]

But, for the genre (which is essentially soft women's porn given a smart new name) her writing is no better or worse than most other books. In fact, it might be better, there appears to be a story line. (and before anyone asks, we used to stock a section in the bookshop I worked in... )

And the genre has been thriving for about ten years now - at one point one of the leading women's magazines had as its free giveaway a copy of erotic shorts with a discreet jacket you could read on the bus. That was easily ten years ago. So, perhaps she is giving readers what they want?

 

[Ursa major]

which is essentially soft women's porn given a smart new name

Women's soft porn, perhaps...? (Or is the term, soft women, some sort of semi-transparent euphemism?)

erotic shorts with a discreet jacket

Is no genre free of merchandising...?

​

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I'm really unsure about that latter part Teresa. Is she giving a large number of readers what they want? Or is everyone being like a lemming and just following what they are told they want.

You have to please a certain number of readers, attain a certain level of notoriety, before the lemming effect kicks in.

Right now, people are reading it because other people are reading it and they want to be able to say they read it, too, but it had to begin with good word of mouth.

Is no genre free of merchandising...?

In the case of that discreet cover art, I'd say it was more camouflage than merchandising.

 

[Toby Frost]

Am I a terrible prude for feeling uncomfortable about sitting opposite someone on a train who is reading a book that's supposed to make them aroused? I wouldn't want to sit opposite some chap reading Big Boobs Monthly, either.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

No, I was in a spa recently and someone was reading it. I didn't feel terribly comfortable around it, either.

 

[Kylara]

A spa! I feel sorry for the people working at the spa! Having to work with people reading that...

 

[Ursa major]

One needs some way** of capturing, and then replaying, the irritating voices of the children in that washing (powder?) advert, the ones who all shout "Grey!" when their teacher asks them the colour of her blouse. If everybody did that, the public readers of the book would soon return to reading it only in private.

Just a suggestion.



** - We aspiring writers ought to have access to a Digital Voice Recorder, if only to help us when we read out stories out loud (which is an important part of the revising process).

 

[Gordian Knot]

Teresa, I agree with what you said in your last post. My only quibble would be that I believe it is the notoriety itself which began the lemming effect. Not the good word of mouth.

I think we are mostly saying the same thing, just slightly differently.

 

[Mouse]

I was listening to Radio 1 at work and Fearne Cotton just announces it on air that she's just read it and I'm sat there thinking why are you announcing to the nation that you're reading porn? She did say though that she was reading it because everyone else is.

Funny though, if everybody's doing something I tend to not want to do it.

 

[Triceratops]

Teresa, I agree with what you said in your last post. My only quibble would be that I believe it is the notoriety itself which began the lemming effect. Not the good word of mouth.

I think we are mostly saying the same thing, just slightly differently.

This is the best explanation thus far of this book's "notorious" (yes, the right word) to fame and fortune. Not only would I feel uncomfortable around anyone reading it, for the life of me, I couldn't/wouldn't be able to write the stuff to any degree of accuracy or any believable entertainment value.

chris

 

[Parson]

Tri,

Maybe the author's ability to write such stuff tells us more about the author than we would care to know???

 

[Triceratops]

Tri,

Maybe the author's ability to write such stuff tells us more about the author than we would care to know???

Entirely possible, when you consider that it is suggested to writers that we write about what we love and know. What I find disturbing is the ambulance-chasing by the big six, whoring after these authors for multi-buck contracts and movie deals. I understand the need to make a profit, entirely, but wow! Just wow! They say that readers drive the industry. I'm wondering what kind of readers I'll be dealing with in the future.

tri

 

[HareBrain]

There are now whole stands of similarly themed (but more extreme, if the blurb is anything to go by) novels in every bookshop. I don't know if they were written in a mad rush to fill the suddenly realised needs of the market, or if they were floating around anyway and being rejected before anyone realised they were paper gold. What I do know is that they make me want to rant and throw things in public.

As for the author's "expertise", I gather the s(t)eamier aspects were based on internet research.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

What I do know is that they make me want to rant and throw things in public.

Don't. People might get entirely the wrong idea.

I suspect they've been around. Like I say there's a whole genre of pulpish literature like this. Black lace shares must be rocketing as we speak...

 

[HareBrain]

Black lace shares must be rocketing as we speak...

Oh no! Eighties flashback!

Aaaagaaaadoo-doo-doo push pineapple shake the tree

 

[Kylara]

I feel bad for Fforde, who wrote a wonderful book called Shades of Grey...really quite brilliant, great ideas...but that name is so close to this stuff, poor Fforde...

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I feel bad for Fforde, who wrote a wonderful book called Shades of Grey...really quite brilliant, great ideas...but that name is so close to this stuff, poor Fforde...

Naww, he just needs to put out a new edition quickly, with a nice jacket advertising the 50(th month)(or week, or fortnight, or however long it's been around) anniversary edition of Shades of Grey, and get it on the shelves while the frenzy lasts.

 

[Kylara]

Oh my I just googled Shades of Grey to find a picture of the most excellent cover, and everything is FSoG Now I feel really bad...anyway, after much searching, this is the cover I have on my copy...and there are others, but I love this one

 

[Ursa major]

I agree, TDZ: he wouldn't want to be beaten by something inferior.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Not the good word of mouth.

But word of mouth would have begun with people who love that sort of thing. Until the book became so famous that people could claim to be reading it just because they are curious just to see what all the hype was about, they weren't likely to bring it up at the dinner table, were they?

There are people who like what her book has to offer. And many who didn't know they liked it who will find out that they do by reading the book. She'll lose readers after this series, no doubt, but she'll still be selling a huge number of books.

It's sickening, but I take comfort in the fact that those readers would not be reading books by my favorite writers or by me anyway. She's not grabbing readers away from anyone except the writers who were famous for being famous before her.

The big difference is, none of us would be uncomfortable around someone reading a book by Dan Brown, no matter how we may deprecate his writing style.



.