Wednesday 25 April 2012

Why Fifty Shades of Grey is good for us



So, everyone in the UK's finally talking about 'Fifty Shades of Grey' by British writer E L James. First of all, I have to put up my hand and say, 'no, I haven't read it'. Yet. I may well do one day but as I have a to-be-read pile that is fifty books high I'm not sure when. A friend who's read it says that it starts off really well although she felt the first in the trilogy was the best and the other two didn't quite live up to the promise.

But hey, who am I to carp? Would E L James care two beans what I or my friend thought? No, because her book is a thumping, runaway, total utter freaking SUCCESS. Good luck to her! But the best thing about 'Fifty Shades of Grey' for erotica writers is that it's brought it right into the mainstream. We've been writing erotica for years. She's written erotica that has raised its profile to such a point that an interviewer was asking her in great detail on no less an august show than Newsnight a couple of days ago about fisting and other unusual diversions. People write erotica, people read erotica (thank goodness readers that you do), the secret's out! So, thanks E L James for ratchetting erotica up the greasy pole of publishing and bringing it out of the shadows.

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