A few months ago, an erotic writing colleague mass-messaged me asking I wanted to participate in a project to let Fifty Shades of Grey author E.L. James know that she had supporters by adding her as a Facebook friend en masse. This was aimed at counteracting some of the vitriol that’s been sent James’ way in the wake of her trilogy’s 70 million-selling success from the erotic writing world (as separate from those claiming that the series is nothing more than domestic abuse, which is worthy of debate, but not what I’m going to focus on here.) The request struck me as a funny one, because I would imagine that online and off, James (real name: Erika Leonard) is bombarded by fawning fans. Not to mention being named one of Barbara Walters’ 10 Most Fascinating People of 2012, Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2012, Publishers Weekly’s 2012 Person of the Year, as well as profiting from the official Fifty Shades of Grey sex toy line, new house, and the August 1, 2014 release of the film version.
Still, life isn’t necessarily all rosy for James. UK erotica writer Kay Jaybee told me of a public snubbing last month, ironically at an awards show where she won:
I was recently at the ETO Awards with my wonderful writing friend KD Grace. We were both up for Best Author, but as E.L. James was also up for it, and it was a trade awards (which makes its money from the toys James has so successfully promoted), we held out no hope of a win. As our names were called as nominees the room cheered and clapped, until James’ name was called—total silence! When James was announced as the winner there were no cheers, no ‘well done,’ nothing. She may have all the money she will ever need, but I felt very sorry for her that night.
While I don’t think James is in need of sympathy, I do agree that she certainly shouldn’t be scorned. Even James herself has admitted on “The Today Show” that the erotic trilogy, which started as Twilight fan fiction and has now sold over 70 million copies, isn’t “revolutionary” and that she’s “stunned” by its popularity and she’s “not a great writer.” But whatever the quality of the writing (something that is, at the end of the day, subjective), at the very least, James should be credited for reviving the erotica genre. How? Anne Rice’s Sleeping Beauty trilogy has gotten a revamp, while a new version of The Story of O by Pauline Réage comes packaged with an introduction by the successor to James’ throne, erotic romance author Sylvia Day. Meanwhile, countless independent ebook publishers are sprouting up to take advantage of holes they see in the market, from porn site Fleshbot’s launch of Fleshbot Fiction to Burning Book Press, Go Deeper Press, the revival of popular UK imprint Black Lace and numerous others, while actual (former) porn stars Sasha Grey and Jenna Jameson will release their debut erotic novels this year.
Yet there may be a kernel of wisdom to the idea of reaching out to James. While her prolific tweets have focused on having a grand time in Los Angeles working alongside screenwriter Kelly Marcel, if you watch closely, James seems perhaps not-so-comfortable with her new role as the grand dame of kinky fiction. During a taping of Katie Couric’s talk show “Katie” last fall, I couldn’t help but notice that James fidgeted with her hands, played with her hair, and looked almost aghast when a video showed an exercise program based on her work. At one point, Couric reached over and patted her knee. I got the impression that James is proud of her characters and eager for their story to be minutely dissected, but less comfortable with her own starring role.
While attending this year’s RT Booklovers Convention as a fan, she went so far as to register under a different name, so organizers didn’t even realize she’d be attending. James still managed to cause a stir. I missed the new adult session where she attended as an audience member, there to support author Abbi Glines, according to a Tweet by Glines. The fact that James is herself a celebrity, as famous to her fans as Robert Pattinson, who recently hosted James at a party in Los Angeles, is to his, is a double-edged sword. Yes, she is rich, recognized, and her books are omnipresent, but clearly there’s a downside.
What she’s done for the world goes far beyond publishing. Her success has shown those who scoff at romance or erotica as lesser genres are only showing they are out of touch with today’s female-led book-buying market. She’s brought awareness of BDSM to a much larger audience and promoted many indie authors via her Twitter account.
The next wave of Twilight fan fiction has spawned bestsellers like Christina Lauren’s Beautiful Bastard series and Sylvain Renard’s Gabriel’s Inferno trilogy. Three separate (unofficial) live theater parodies have already been launched, with touring schedules mapped out well to the end of 2013, while the branded sex toys quote directly from James’ words in their packaging. Fifty Shades of Grey is a worldwide phenomenon. While visiting Dubai last fall, I saw gigantic stacks of the telling grey tie glinting from its cover, though the second and third books were reportedly pulled from bookstore shelves after customers objected. The books’ success has also meant big business for related industries like sex toys and lingerie, as well as a Maine paper mill which was contracted to supply 3,000 tons of paper to produce the actual books.
When I sat in on Stef Woods’ Fifty Shades of Grey college class at American University, I was highly impressed at the level of discourse about the book and its assorted controversies. Students were versed in everything from creating their own marketing plans (for novel ideas they’d come up with), many of which were far more elaborate and nuanced than those of actual published authors, and articulated intelligent responses to the fact that many libraries are not stocking the trilogy.
At the very least, my advice to writers who are offended by the perceived poor quality of Fifty Shades is to get out there and write your own stories. There’s no barrier to self-publishing; you can experiment with length, track sales and adjust prices. Ultimately, I believe the mania over James, positive and negative, says more about the commenter than the author. The fact that James, despite her success, comes across as your average mom who’s had a bit of mindblowing success means she’s opened up as many doors for writers via her personality as she has by helping expand the market. She doesn’t have the glamour or remove of a Jackie Collins or Danielle Steel, and by virtue of that, should give those who’ve been thinking I could do that to get out there and write their hearts out.
Works Referenced:
E.L. James, Fifty Shades of Grey (Indiebound | Amazon)
Christina Lauren, Beautiful Bastard (Indiebound | Amazon)
Pauline Réage, The Story of O (Indiebound | Amazon)
Sylvain Renard, Gabriel’s Inferno (Indiebound | Amazon)
Anne Rice, The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy (Indiebound | Amazon)
Tags: el james, erotica, go ahead write some erotica, grande dame of kinky fiction, rachel is way better at this than e.l. james though, rachel kramer bussel, writing, you should buy her books instead
Maybe. But. Butbutbut.
If she’s not a great writer, by her own admission, why is she releasing a writers guide?
I don’t begrudge her success (I’m lying, I totally begrudge her success and am bitterly jealous) and would never be vicious or cruel about her.
But I do think that the toxic relationships in her book need to be examined, criticised and set on fire.
And I have issues with people writing fan fiction, changing the names and then charging money for it. It’s too close to plagiarism for me.
All that said, death threats, cruelty, bullying, and mindless bandwagon hate are not things I approve of either, so…
eeeehhhhhh is where I’m going with this.
Most of those feelings are feelings I also have. The writer’s guide thing bothers me a lot, specifically because she has said that she doesn’t think she is a great writer. Unless that guide is more of a “how to market your writing” book. That’s something she’s done well, clearly.
I also think the toxic relationships in her book need close examination and criticism. Much like the toxic relationships in the books that spawned her books.
My thing about fanfiction is that it sort of shortcuts the writing process — the worldbuilding and character development is already done for you, if you’re working with someone else’s world. That’s not to say that there aren’t a bajillionty-million derivative works out there that haven’t done well and don’t have similar stigma to them because they aren’t based on something that people freely deride like they do Twilight.
In any case, I think that being awful to her because she’s been successful despite the quality of her work is unnecessary. I will never really understand why people choose to harp on something they dislike to the point of bullying the creator and sending death threats rather than just finding something else to do.
Yes, I’d just prefer to ignore her work and not read it, which is what I’ve done.
As for the ‘encouraging her fans to write’ thing, well, I think everyone should write, if they want to, and it should be a thing that anyone can do. I just think they should probably read some better books as well, before they start.
And anyone can self publish, which is both the great thing about it and the awful thing about it.
I’m not sure it did get erotica taken more seriously, either. More attention, maybem but treated as a serious type of writing work that takes practice and dedication and effort? I’ll be honest that I’ve seen even more dismissiveness about it now.
Exactlyyyy. Plus, the “awareness to BDSM” seems to have been problematic. From what I’ve gathered (read many excerpts, but not the books) their relationship is not practiced very safely, so if that’s peoples intro to BDSM it could be pretty dangerous.
But yeah, mainly, if you don’t like the books just do something else. It’s not worth bullying her.
Hmm this is really interesting. I guess I agree that she shouldn’t be bullied or scorned – she ought to have at least been met with a polite clap instead of silence, because manners.
BUT I don’t think that popularity or success mean that her work shouldn’t be criticized for its content. PUAs are successful and popular amongst their audience. Tucker fucking Max sold a lot of books. That doesn’t mean people should emulate them.
Effectively, aren’t you sort of saying oh she’s lowered the bar so now we can all try to get book deals?
Yeah, and I don’t actually think that’s a good thing. While cultural eltism is awful, and publishing is a business that cares about what sells, yada yada, I don’t think anyone wants piles of barely-literate slushpile work in bookstores.
Instead of encouraging people to just splurge out their words, do almost no editing and bung it up on Amazon KDP, perhaps we should be gently encouraging people to rediscover the joy of reading, and writing and of finding the right words? Of taking pride in their work so they are giving the world the best thing they were capable of?
You aren’t owed a publishing deal just because you wrote a book. You get one because someone thinks you’ll sell. That doesn’t always mean top quality, but often enough it does and should.
Which is to say: I’ll be glad if she gets more people reading and writing, because those things are awesome, and writing your heart out is great. But writing your heart out and putting effort in isn’t all you need to do and I’m worried people will be setting up their shingle, filled with misconceptions, and getting themselves heartbroken.
I have a friend who jsut gave up on his self-publishing because he didn’t even sell his goal of fifty copies, you know? It’s hard and brutal and disappointing for most who try to write professionally, no matter which way they do it.
And it’s nice to say ‘oh, just write your heart out’ but perhaps we also need to say ‘and edit for hours and self-promote and expect horrid disappointment’.
Yeah it’s the same thing with TV, do we want more Jackass and Big Brother, because those are popular, or do we want more The Wire and Orphan Black, because those shows are fucking brilliant?
(popular slash easy to churn out without putting effort in)
ideally, we get a combination. Some trash, some greats, because your diet shouldn’t be all one thing. And some people will only ever consume trash and others will only consume haute cuisine and those are both fine.
But let’s not encourage mediocrity, ‘this’ll do’ and lowest-common-denominator over dedication and skill.
People who work hard to create good work also deserve praise and success, you know?
YES! I just thought of another good thing out of this though, which is that it could POSSIBLY make it easier for more first-time authors to get book deals. And more women authors! Which is good.
Yes! That is a potential thing and potentially very good! But publishing is a cautious, lumbering beast and usually just buys similar stuff until something new and different has a sudden breakout of success and then they buy versions of that over and over again until the market is saturated.
Just because it sold once doesn’t mean it’ll sell again.
Ah. I’m jus bitter. I write female-centric acventure fantasy and the market for that is tiny. I’m never gonna make any money/
EVEN YOUR TRASH SHOULD BE GOOD TRASH THO.
I have so many feelings about this. I like LOTS of books that do not expand my soul or do anything interesting with language, books that could never qualify as ‘literary’, and I love them and you will pry them out of my cold dead hands, but they’re at least well-written and interesting. Dick Frances is my jam and I am so sad he’s dead, but I can’t just pick up a random murder mystery because most of them are sooo poorly written.
Anyway, point is: good trash. It is a thing that exists. And to your point, you can create trash that isn’t mediocre in any way. It is excellent, well-crafted trash. Same is true for TV. There are terrible shows, poorly written and crafted, and there are trash shows that are well-written and fun and complete fluff that will change no one’s life but that provide an entertaining escape from reality.
DICK FRANCIS! Every book exactly the same and all of them treasures.
I LOVE GOOD TRASH.
Books that are far from mind expanding art but at the very least are written with competence if not brilliance.
And they’re fun and you can enjoy them because of that competence – because the story hangs well and the writing is descriptive and not confusing and because you aren’t fucking cringking every time you read.
Hell, (I hope) I’m WRITING it.
Dick Francis! Love him.
I have a fierce and undying love of the collected works of Judith Krantz. That, to me is good trash. It is no holds barred wish fulfillment smut and I love it. Scandals is my jam.
Guys can we start a thread for good trash? Because I need some new stuff, all my favorite good trash authors are dying on me. And Terry Pratchett’s last book made me really sad because his illness is clearly getting the better of him. Gimme good trash reads! I like Sue Grafton, Robert B. Parker, David Eddings, and Jacqueline Carey.
I just nearly fell out of my chair: Jacqueline Carey described as Good Trash? OMG. I judge literary awards and she is one of the most brilliant fantasy authors around. I love trash, for sure, but her work is very very very far from that category. Cannot. Even.
Right!? Like, even your trash should be edited for typos, which is what so irked me about E.L. James. There were sentences with words missing.
This is a great comment. The whole thing. I just sat here nodding. I think too many people these days want the instant gratification (not just in writing, but in all arenas of life) of “I did a thing, now I want the thing I think doing that thing should have gotten me.” So in writing it’s “I wrote a book, where is my publishing deal.” With some people it’s “I got my degree, where is my job?” Or “I sang live at a popular venue, where is my recording deal?” or multitudes of other iterations. The idea that you have to work really hard for who knows how long of a time to succeed and maybe even then it won’t happen just doesn’t really seem to be something people consider anymore. It’s hard out there!
You just reminded me of that part in Bird by Bird where Lamott’s trying to explain to her students how to get past the fear of writing and how it’s hard and what to do when it’s hard and that they can do it, really they can, and some kid sticks up his hand and asks if they really need an agent.
I’m always saying ‘this might not happen for me’ and people say I’m being defeatist, but I just think I’m being realistic.
It won’t stop me writing, ever, and I still believe that if you have an interesting concept and you write well that you have a better chance than most.
But it might not happen! And having back up plans and being realistic about this keeps me from getting too discouraged.
It’s also kind of amazing that a lot of her books have sold because people are curious or want to be able to read it so they can criticize it knowledgeably or just make fun of it. It’s a cultural phenomenon. I would venture to guess that that must be a fourth of her sales. That (plus the fact that I teach teenagers) is the reason I read both 50 Shades of Grey and Twilight.
As a kinky person, I take exception to the fact that [SPOILER ALERT] the whole reason Christian Grey is a dominant sadist is because of his childhood and he seeks out submissives who remind him of his biological mother. A book that COULD have said “hey, look, D/s relationships can be fun and sexy and also romantic and loving and TOTALLY HEALTHY” is instead basically Beauty and the Beast only instead of being an ugly beast, he’s a kinkster. I probably shouldn’t take that personally, but it’s hard not to. (Also, when they’re negotiating the contract and Ana rejects several things out of hand and the author seems to be on her side, again, it’s hard not to take that rejection a little personally when those are things that you enjoy doing).
Not that I think that people should be mean to her, because I was raised better than that. But I can understand being angry with her (I have heard from people who ran in the same fandom circles that she completely rejected any attempts to help her make the BDSM more realistic and authentic). And I’m uncomfortable with her being “the grand dame of kinky fiction” as well, because I get the feeling from her writing that she isn’t actually kinky.
I have been thinking about submitting a One-Handed Read to BUST magazine though.
I think critique of her work’s content is important because of all the same reasons we talk amongst ourselves on the ‘Pin and Toast – it’s emblematic of a type of sexism that needs to disappear, and if we don’t point out what is wrong with it, people who are as yet unaware of the problems will remain unaware of the problems.
James herself is someone who has drunk the Kool-Aid (well, that’s speculative, but judging from her work, I think it’s pretty damn likely) and has written a work that’s true to the themes of life as she understands them, and that is the problem. Explaining that the world should not in fact work this way is really, really important. We don’t need to be mean to James to do that. We’ve all been the person who was unaware we were feeding the sexist culture we live in, and I don’t feel any need to berate her for being that person herself.
This is essentially how I feel about Stephanie Meyer, too.
Sadly, I think pointing out that these books embody a bad cultural attitude will sway few. But something leon s. said on a Pin thread ages ago comforts me here. He said that he read an article, and then another, and then another, on feminism, and the more he understood the more he wanted to understand. And I have to hope that this is the case with books like these, that there are people out there who read them and like them, and who read an article critiquing them, and who become intrigued, and learn a little more, and a little more, and eventually become one of those people who just can’t STAND the latest bestseller, because it’s so bad for women.
That’s my hope, anyway.
Yeah I think it's fair to be impressed with what she has accomplished, while still giving the side-eye to some of the other aspects.
I've never read any of the Dresden Files books, but I am bored by fight scenes as well.
my hed is pasted on yay and msscribe were so riveting as they were going on. And Crystalwank! I lost sleep on that one, staying up all night to see what new craziness the comments would bring.
Meeemories….
oh my God, remember the Snape Wives? And the tiniest armadillo?
Fandom Wank in its prime was truly a thing of beauty.
AHHH SNAPES ON AN ASTRAL PLANE!
Can I ask, without being bitchy (probably not but here goes) when people say someone “is not that good of a writer”, do they mean they lack the ability to string words together in a pleasing fashion, or that they do not do the necessary sort of research and background work needed to write properly about something for public consumption?
Also I really can’t believe how casually the domestic abuse elements of the writing were glossed over and then dismissed.
I personally would say the former, I think if the latter were the case you’d say something disparaging about their research skills. 🙂
You should read Jenny Trout’s recaps of the novels. Jenny is a published author, and she does a tremendous job of making her commentary encompass everything.
http://jennytrout.wordpress.com/jenny-reads-50-sh…
The former, for me, combined with a greater or lesser inability to create believable characters or coherent plots.
Right!? Like, even your trash should be edited for typos, which is what so irked me about E.L. James. There were sentences with words missing.
You should read Jenny Trout's recaps of the novels. Jenny is a published author, and she does a tremendous job of making her commentary encompass everything.
http://jennytrout.wordpress.com/jenny-reads-50-sh…