50 Shades of Grey - Why all the fuss?

I couldn't help but notice the buzz that is currently manifesting itself all over the UK and indeed the rest of the civilised world.

Otherwise quiet and respectable Mummies are exhibiting strange behaviour, their status updates on Facebook hint of ripped jeans, light bondage and other erotic references. After a little digging I discovered that the catalyst for this wave of excitement amongst these ladies is a book entitled 50 Shades of Grey by a British Author E.L. James.

I haven't as yet read this book but I intend to despite its obvious market being female. The Authors own website describes the book as:

"Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever".


The book, the first in a trilogy, started out as fan fiction based on the Twilight stories. Originally released as an ebook, word of mouth and social networking lead the book to become viral. A publisher then paid what is reported to be a seven figure sum for the trilogy. The rest as they say is history albeit recent and this previously unknown British Author is now responsible for kickstarting the libido of females across the globe.

Discreet Erotica in the form of an ebook

Erotic fiction isn't new so why has Fifty Shades of Grey been such a success? The advent of ebook readers, most notably the Kindle has meant that our choice of book has become more private. You can read any novel on your kindle, ipad, phone, tablet in any environment without anybody knowing what you are reading.

In the past, housewives up and down the country have thumbed through the erotic fiction in the supermarket only to put the book back on the shelf so as to save the embarrassment of going through the tills with a book featuring a whip and handcuffs on the front cover. The ebook readers remove the need for such embarrassment as the book is securely delivered electronically to your chosen device.

Be it by accident or absolute brilliance, E.L. James has taken full advantage of this shift in technology and delivered erotic fiction that has brought out the horny little minx in every female who has read it.

You can be sure that there will be a flurry of similar novels released from now on as both amateur writers and publishers sit up and take notice. So, the secret it seems is to harvest as much information about the fantasies of our wives and girlfriends and mix these into a novel amidst a cast of powerful, sexy and dark characters.

I'm working on the outline as we speak! :)

Steve