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Wednesday 14 March 2012

Fifty Shades of Grey - 'Mommy Porn'






























Described as "total mommy porn", "Sex & The City times a million", and "'Twilight' for grown-ups", it's the quiet publishing phenomenon that has now reached fever pitch.

It's called 'Fifty Shades of Grey' and it's part of a trilogy of books which will become the most talked book release of the year.

I have heard about this book for a short while now, and it has only been written about in Australia for a few days, while in the US, the low hum about the book has been generating for several months.

In fact, the movement behind the book could be described as a literary version of a YouTube viral sensation, and has been described by The New York Times as having "electrified women across the country, who have spread the word like gospel on Facebook pages, at school functions and in spin classes."

Whoa. And all this just by word of mouth. In fact, 'Fifty Shades of Grey' is already a New York Times and Amazon e-book fiction best-seller.

In this TV report (below) from US TV's ABC News reporter Elizabeth Vargas, she speaks with author of the book "How to Get Your Wife to Have Sex With You" Logan Levkoff about the controversial novel, asking why "A lot of strong smart successful women are eating this up"?

Says Levkoff: "I think it's important to remember that women get turned on by a lot of things, and it's not politically correct - that kind of fantasy, in terms of being subsmissive or being taken care of - but when you are so used to taking care of people in your own life, that's a great mental space to go to."

'Fifty Shades of Grey' is about a 22 year old university (college) literature student Anastasia, a virgin who falls for a 28 year old entrepreneur, Christian Grey, who gets a sexual kick out of being in charge. It's explicit, and involves a fair amount of tie-me-up, tie-me-down.

The author is British woman E.L. James (pictured), a former television exec who first published the book on a fan fiction site called ff.net as a fairly lengthy book, 1000-page+ book.

That's where Australian Amanda Hayward comes in.

A few years ago, Hayward and a partner in the US set up a site where amateur romance writers could publish their work free to all readers, called The Writer's Coffee Shop (the Australian arm is based in Hornsby).

In early 2011, Hayward noticed that E.L. James was attracting lots of readers with the erotic adventures - posted chapter by chapter - of the characters Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey.

An e-book version was launched in May, with Hayward stepping up as the solo investor for the project, and so the phenomenon actually kicked off in Australia.

A few paperbacks were printed for US and UK trade only. But with the buzz of the book getting louder, and limited hard copies available, women were getting their hands on the book any way they could, mostly online.

And now, after a reported bidding war worth seven figures to publish the book, US publisher Vintage Books is re-releasing the book in the US in April, having just last week purchased the American rights to 'Fifty Shades of Grey' and its two sequels, 'Fifty Shades Darker' and 'Fifty Shades Freed' (James rapidly wrote the two sequels: 'Fifty Shades Darker' in September and'Fifty Shades Freed' in January).

In Australia, the rights have been sold for more than $1 million to Random House, reaping a huge windfall for Amanda's [as of last week] unknown company.

Copies of the trilogy will hit US bookshops from next week, and in Australia, 'Fifty Shades of Grey' will finally appear in Aussie bookstores in April or May.

I have read the first few chapters and am downloading the entire book today - I am keen to immerse myself into this curious erotic chick-lit sensation, the same way I fell for 'The Bride Stripped Bare', 'Lady Chatterley's Lover', even my first racy novel, 'Lucky' by Jackie Collins.

Readers - and their partners - are said to be reaping the results of this novel with its sexy prose and out there text, translating to... you know... a healthier sex life (who even started this rumour that married couples don't have sex anyway? Ugh.)

See the ABC News report here:


You can buy the book here (on order, thanks to high demand):


Or wait until it hits bookstores next month.

And, you can read the first few chapters here: http://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Shades-Grey-L-James/dp/1612130283

You can read more about the author here: http://www.eljamesauthor.com/

Follow her on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/#!/e_l_james

And see what The Writer's Coffee Shop is all about here (you can even submit your own novel): http://www.thewriterscoffeeshop.com/

So... What about you? Will you be reading the book?

Are you curious?

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