‘Fifty Shades’ rules the charts despite pain of publishing
Author E.L. James attends the Fifty Shades Of Grey Q&A at Barnes & Noble Union Square on May 10 in New York. Photo/AFP
It is literally flying off bookshop shelves. Readers, especially women, are talking about it. And some US libraries are pulling it from their catalogues.
Imitators are publishing their own versions with almost similar names. And big publishers are lining up to re-issue it. So are movie-makers.
Never in so long has one novel ignited so much interest as has E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey, the first in a trilogy involving racy if masochistic romance between an impressionable university student and a young, devilishly handsome and sexually peculiar CEO of a steel company.
Fifty Shades of Grey, has been banned from some US libraries but this has not stopped it from rising to be one of the fastest best-selling series of all time.
And, according to online news sources, the novel is not featuring at the top of the Amazon best-seller list because the world’s leading retailer has a policy of not revealing erotic titles that top the list.
Still, the trilogy — Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed — have remained the top-three books on the New York best-sellers list for 11 weeks, both the print and e-book editions.
The first book was published in May 2011 by a small independent publishing firm in... hold your breath, Australia. Now, big publishers have inked deals with Coffee Shop Publishing House — yes, that is the name of the publisher.
The novel, described by the Daily Mail as “mommy porn” tells the story of dashing billionaire Christian Grey and young graduate, Anastasia Steele, in a plot that evokes sympathy in the protagonist.
Some scenes were worth skimming through but nevertheless the author tells a compelling story, through Anastasia’s point of view from the point where her room-mate falls ill and Anastasia has to step in and interview Mr Grey for a college magazine.
The plot revolves around a dominant-submissive sexual relationship between the two characters and some critics have raised eyebrows about the casting of sexual roles in the novel.
The books have received mixed reviews. Not everyone is enthralled, of course, with some saying the content is too shallow while others have argued that the sex scenes are too crass.
Libraries in Florida, Wisconsin and Georgia, all in the US, banned the books because they were deemed racy and inappropriate.
But Florida had to return the books to its library shelves after a public outcry giving readers a reason to be ecstatic.
“There is no room on library shelves for censorship,” wrote the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Florida and the National Coalition Against Censorship during their campaign to oppose withdrawal of the books.
It was not an easy journey for Ms James, a British author. She ended up publishing in Australia because she could not get a mainstream publisher.
And initially, she relied on word-of-mouth to push copies of the electronic version. Today, the book is selling millions of copies.
According to the latest edition of Newsweek, the trilogy has sold ten million copies in the last six weeks.
When Vintage Books, part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, issued the book, sales hit the roof leading to reprints exceeding 900,000 copies a day by last week, according to the publisher. Ms James describes herself as a TV executive, wife and mother of two, based in London.
However, the plot of her novels in the trilogy is based in Seattle, Washington, mostly. She said since early childhood, she dreamt of writing stories that readers would fall in love with, but put those dreams on hold to focus on her family and career.
The books began as a fan fiction inspired by the Twilight book series by Stephanie Meyers which has been a major hit.
Just like the Twilight Series which became a successful movie franchise, Fifty Shades looks set to become a movie. Universal Pictures and Focus Features have acquired the films rights.
E-book readers including the Kindle, Nook and iPad offer a discreet option helping push its sales.
The Romance Writers of America say that sales of all romance novels range was worth $1.4 billion last year, with 8,240 titles published in 2010, a 13 per cent of all books, according to AFP.
In Kenya, books are available at Savannis in Westgate at Sh1,050 each. The book is also retailing at Sh1,000 each at Bookstop, Yaya Centre. The outlet sells an average of six sets a day.
