The Next Fifty Shades of Grey

"So you think you're gonna be the next Fifty Shades of Grey author, eh? I don't THINK SO!" she cried as she put her opponent in a full Authorial Submission Vagina Sleeper Hold. Image source: Ultimate Surrender.com.
Here you'll see the latest book being touted as the next Fifty Shades of Grey. I'm not even going to mention the title in this story, I've seen dozens of such stories since Fifty Shades of Grey came out, and you know what the title “The Next Fifty Shades of Grey” has come to mean to me? It means “Also Ran.”

The success of Fifty Shades was not a matter of being well written, it was a matter of time, and tides. It was the first time a bit of fanfic (of the Twilight books) with the numbers filed off had ever had great success. It was the burgeoning of the long-building move of romance books toward more powerful sex scenes, and of the transformation of the traditional old bodice ripper romances to straightforward stories with themes of bondage, dominance and submission, along with the breakout of romance writers from the stranglehold of traditional romance publishers to the freedom of self-published ebooks. Finally, it was the rise of ebooks as a valid format for good writers.

It was ALL of these factors working together that made “Fifty Shades of Grey” such a tremendous success. I'm not saying it wasn't a well-written book, it WAS a well written book, but it's quality had a lot more to do with the understanding of its subject matter and its audience's interests than it had to do with literary sylishness (the basic gripe most of the lit-crit types have with the book is over style, not substance). In fact, it was arguably the feedback and editing that James got from the Twilight fandom community when she was working on "Master of the Universe," the fanfic story that became Fifty Shades of Grey, that made the book work so well.

There will be other very successful bondage-themed novels, and many will be very well written books indeed. But they will stand on their own as what they are. There will never be “another Fifty Shades of Grey” and saying that your book is such is more an admission of defeat than anything else. But there will be many, many books touted as “the next Fifty Shades of Grey” because marketers think it's a good “hook” for touting a book.

They would not think so if they understand the success of Fifty Shades of Grey the way I understand it.

5000 Shades of Grey

Sales of 70 million copies of Fifty Shades of Gray in its first year may have been fueled by fantasies like this.
 Image source: Kink.com shoot 39546, starring Aidra Fox and The Pope. 
I read with pleasure that Random House is giving $5000 to each and every employee of the company who has been with them for more than a year, right down to the lowliest janitor and administrative assistant, in celebration of the tremendous success of "Fifty Shades of Grey" which has sold almost 50 million copies worldwide, at one point constituting one out of every five books being purchased by adults.

I applaud Random House for their brave generosity at a time when corporations in general are behaving with incredible stupid dickishness toward their employees and customers in reaction to the Democratic election victory. For example, Applebee's Restaurants, Papa John's restaurants, and Darden, the Corporate Monster that owns Red Lobster, Longhorn Steaks and Olive Garden have all announced moves that will decrease employees' wages, hours or status (moving from full time to part time) explaining that the now-likely continuation of Obamacare into law "necessitated" it.

In contrast with this sort of corporate dickishness, Random House looks really great!

However, I am not entirely delighted by the bonus, because I think part of it comes as a result of a capitalist organization looting a gift economy. I am referring of course to the Twilight fanfic community from which Fifty Shades of Grey. Remember, it started out as a straight up fanfic called "Master of the Universe" by Icedragon Snowqueen (James' pen name for fanfic) with characters lifted straight from the book.

And a key part of what made "Master of the Universe" and by extension, "Fifty Shades of Grey," so successful, was the work that some Twilight fans put into Master of the Universe for free, editing it skillfully to take it up another notch. Obsidian Wings wrote about their work, with examples. Clearly they had a LOT to do with the story's success, much more than most Random House employees.

Of course, the Twilight fanfic editors got nothing for their work. They did not sign a contract or anything like that, they just edited a story they liked, because they liked it, expecting nothing more in return than the thanks of the community and the chance to read the story.

Still, it does.not.seem.right!

Now I know legally the Twilight fanfic editors are entitled to nothing. But so often, what's legal has little to do with what is ethical. And I don't think this is a problem that could be solved by giving some Twilight fanfic editors a few thousand dollars (though it WOULD be the right thing to do!). But I do believe we are going to have to eventually deal with the moral issues of capitalist organizations essentially looting gift economies, and giving nothing in return. Perhaps quite soon, if publishers continue trolling the Twilight fanfic community for new works to publish.

Coming up soon: E.L. James vs. Lena Dunham vs. John Crowley. Really!