Fifty Shades of Change
I STARTED WORKING as a literary agent two years ago, and one of the first books I signed was a self-published erotic steampunk novel. I discovered it on Twitter, seduced by its gorgeous cover. I emailed the author and read the book in a single sitting. The writing drew me in with seductive phrases and beautiful storytelling. I was hooked. Addicted. I took it into our office and everyone read it. Everyone loved it.
“This is a six-figure book,” said one agent.
“This will go to auction,” said another.
Both agents had been in the industry for many years. One of them didn’t even read erotica, but like me, in reading this book, had been drawn into a world she couldn’t forget.
Determined to break the stereotype of self-published books, I sent it out on submission. A good book is a good book, I figured. This one just happened to be erotic. The editors offered praise. One at a Big Six house emailed me halfway through and said she loved it. Some editors took it to their boards. But in the end the content was too scandalous, too controversial for their publishers. The main character was a man who liked to have sex—lots of sex—and the story was told in first-person from the male point of view. Because of that, we knew exactly how much he liked sex. A little rough sex even appeared. It was delicious. One editor emailed me several times to let me know it was fantastic and that she thought it would be perfect for her list.
Then her publisher canceled her erotic line, killing the potential deal.
For two years I shopped this amazing book, determined to find it a home. I felt frustrated by the market’s limitations. Was the book too erotic? Was self-publishing its downfall? Those issues played a role. But an even bigger factor? The book was simply too kinky. Most publishers believed readers weren’t ready for that.
But readers were ready for some kink, and they didn’t care if the book was traditionally published. They just needed to be able to find it. They just needed to be able to buy it. And then they just wanted to read it and enjoy it—in the car, on the train, on the couch, or in the bedroom.
My struggle to find a publisher for that self-published book—which, months after Fifty Shades of Grey burst onto the scene, started receiving offers, both foreign and domestic—wasn’t the last time our agency battled to break through the prejudices about erotica and BDSM writing. At the 2011 Romance Writers of America Conference, I sat down with a traditional, female-owned publisher and pitched them an exclusive erotica line. They said they didn’t do erotica. However, after we revealed book sales and royalty statements for writers who were publishing in the digital marketplace they got excited. They thought it could work, especially because at that time a large book retailer was looking to fill a void left after the closing of an erotic publishing imprint.
Then they wanted the dirty details.
Exactly what kind of books were these, they wondered. Well, BDSM, male-male, and ménage. For starters. Those are the digital bestsellers, the genres readers crave. But when we sent one of their romance editors some erotic manuscripts, she passed on the entire line and said it didn’t fit into their list. We knew it didn’t fit into their list; that’s why we approached them. It was something new and different. In the end, it was simply too different—too erotic.
Now? Just one year later, it’s all changed, and it’s all because of one English author, E. L. James, and her three naughty books. Foreign agents call wanting more erotica. Scouts approach us wanting to talk about erotic publishing. I have an exclusive erotic imprint now at Coliloquy, a digital publisher that delivers customized erotic adventures to their readers, and created an erotic audio imprint with Audio Realms just for my clients at royalty rates that beat all competitors. (Customers don’t just want to read about spankings and bondage and dominance and submission—they want to listen to it, the better, I think, to free their hands.) A famous book packager approached me, searching for erotic authors.
The changes are obvious throughout the industry, marked by headline-grabbing sales. Berkley snapped up veteran romance writer Sylvia Day’s self-published erotic romance in a major deal and later bought author Sylvain Renard’s Gabriel’s Inferno and Gabriel’s Rapture from a small digital publisher for seven figures.
E. L. James helped BDSM and erotica burst onto the scene, but for a decade, a select few people—almost all of them women—have been working outside of traditional publishing, using their knowledge that women love to read sexy, scandalous books to create erotic digital publishing houses. This is not self-publishing; they support their authors in all the ways that count. These women built websites and published erotic writers, then provided gorgeous covers, amazing online and in-store distribution, wonderful editing, promotion, and high royalties. Today some of these companies are multimillion-dollar businesses. They were ahead of the trend, and now that the rest of the publishing world has caught on, they are leading the way. Older publishing houses are trying to catch up, and one of the ways they are doing that is by buying out books from the digital-first publishers who have already figured out this new market.
Fifty Shades of Grey forced the world to accept that women have always enjoyed erotic romance. The reading public has spoken, even as the media, bloggers, and book world attempt to figure out what it all means. The traditional publishing industry has had to acknowledge that there is a strong market for erotic fiction written, edited, and purchased by women. These aren’t the bodice rippers of old. These aren’t the books you hide in your bedside table or inside a copy of Ulysses. Romance is a multibillion-dollar business and erotic content is a huge part of that market.
My colleague Lori Perkins likes to consider herself (as she mentions in the introduction to this book) a “feminist pornographer,” a phrase that offends some people. Honestly? It makes me cringe, too, but I cringe not because I think the term degrades women, the romance genre, or the industry, but because I actually like the way it sounds and I know that as a publishing professional I’m not supposed to use words like “pornography,” “smut,” “bodice ripper,” or “mommy porn.” I cringe the same way when I add an extra scoop of ice cream to my sundae or sneak chocolate while on a diet—because what I’m doing feels so good, it must mean trouble. Secretly, I want to embrace those terms, wear them on a T-shirt, tattoo them to my body, and whisper them to those who take offense. What The Vagina Monologues did for women and their vaginas, Fifty Shades has done for women and smut. No matter what anyone says or thinks, no matter how they feel about the book or the author, E. L. James has revolutionized publishing. For fans of romance books, and especially for fans who enjoy erotica and a bit—or a lot—of BDSM in their stories, this is the best time ever to be a reader.
It’s an even better time to be an author of erotic romance. E. L. James helped pave the way for these writers, but I can’t wait for new voices to emerge and follow in her formidable, trailblazing footsteps. They might be longtime erotica writers finally being discovered by the public. Or maybe they’ll be writers who have written traditional romances but have always cultivated naughtier ideas in their heart and can now sell those stories to mainstream readers. Maybe they’ll be conservative writers who simply realize this is a viable market for their careers. Perhaps the new face of erotica will be an author who has only written thrillers or horror or nonfiction and was too embarrassed to write the story she’s thought about for years, or a writer who had fantasies of telling the tale about that night her husband put her over his knee for a sexy spanking followed by a night of passionate lovemaking. Inspired by E. L. James’ success—and by the response of readers—she’ll finally be ready to write that book … but only after she makes her husband give her some more firsthand experience. These books sell. Not only can authors make money, they can make a living off books like these. Readers want them.
I want them, too. I want writers to send me their erotica. To paraphrase the poem associated with Lady Liberty—who may have been reading something a tad naughtier than the Declaration of Independence on that tablet of hers all along—give me your spanking tales, your bondage love stories, your fetish fanfiction, your sexy, forbidden fantasies yearning to breathe free.
Fifty Shades of Grey isn’t the first popular BDSM romance, but it’s certainly been the most successful at bringing erotic literature into the mainstream. I can’t wait to sell similar books. And I can’t wait to read what authors in this genre will produce next.
LOUISE FURY is an award-winning literary agent at the L. Perkins Agency and specializes in all forms of romance, children’s books, and young adult material, as well as pop culture nonfiction. She has sold books to both traditional and electronic publishers and encourages authors to have one foot in traditional publishing and the other in the digital-first arena. She believes in staying ahead of the pack by embracing change, not just adapting to it, and is a huge advocate for exploring secondary rights. She’s sold audio and foreign rights for her clients and was awarded the 2012 RWA NYC Golden Apple Award for Agent of the Year. For more information, visit www.louisefury.com or follow her on Twitter @louisefury.