EL James's Fifty Shades of Grey has stormed to the top of the bestseller charts on both sides of the Atlantic, going from self-published ebook and print-on-demand paperback to a Vintage/Arrow Books series, with two sequels hurried into print and a multimillion-dollar film deal with Universal sealed. And, as a saucy novel written by a woman, there has been the usual fuss about erotic fiction.
The same feigned surprise recurs every time erotica proves popular, whether it's Belle de Jour or Fanny Hill. And Fifty Shades … is no Story of O. This time, the debate has turned on the supposed "discretion" provided by ebook erotica, which can be read anywhere without a cover to give the game away. But while romance and erotica have been consistently strong sellers on the Kindle since its launch, driving early ebook adoption while remaining popular online, it follows in a long line from Nancy Friday to the recently revived Black Lace imprint, perennially popular, and, yes, usually written by women. What's interesting about Fifty Shades… is not its content but its provenance.
The sprawling fan fiction groups of the internet cover everything from films to TV shows to pop stars, and the strongest tend to cluster around imaginative teenage fiction such as Harry Potter and the Twilight series. It's from these groups that Fifty Shades of Grey has emerged, in the original version, entitled Master of the Universe and signed "Snowqueen's Icedragon",, the lead characters were Stephenie Meyer's Edward and Bella, their names later changed for publication.
Published free online, it began its slow burn to bestseller status surrounded by a passionate peer group of fellow fans and writers, more female than male, who are not merely consuming literature, but remixing and co-producing it.
As publishers hunger for popular content while cutting promotional budgets, such ready-formed, literate and ebook-reading groups are likely to become the engine rooms of fiction.
