Labels, Schmabels, I’ll Take the Publicity!
FIFTY SHADES OF GREY. It’s been called porn, erotica for women, and, more recently, mommy porn (or mummy porn, as we British would say). It’s also been called a lot worse, but I won’t get into that.
My opinion is that labels don’t matter. The media can give Fifty Shades of Grey whatever nickname they like. What does matter is the huge popularity of the book, and the fallout that is affecting the publishing industry, particularly in the romance and erotica sectors. As a UK writer, I’m going to give my perspective on the Fifty Shades trilogy and how it’s affected things here in author E. L. James’ home country.
Whether you love or hate the book, there’s no doubting that it’s been a game changer. Nielsen BookScan, a company that compiles official UK chart figures, released the information that the book is the fastest selling paperback since records began, outstripping J.K. Rowling and Dan Brown of Harry Potter and The Da Vinci Code fame respectively. That’s a huge feat for any book, let alone one belonging to a genre that, up until recently, was pretty much confined to bedrooms and talked about only amongst the most open-minded of friends.
In the UK, certainly, very few bookstores stocked erotic fiction. Now they have tables full of stock of Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker, and Fifty Shades Freed. Even the supermarkets are stocking the trilogy, often as part of special promotions. If you want a copy of the books, then you don’t have to go very far—they’re everywhere. I’m half expecting to spot a copy in my local post office.
Even the UK media, previously so aloof toward erotic fiction, has gone crazy for it. E. L. James has appeared in countless newspapers and magazines and on national television, talking about the books, how they’ve taken off, and where her inspiration to write them came from. She comes across as quite surprised by the flare-up of interest and the resulting worldwide boom, but I’m sure that, despite her surprise, she’s happily counting her money. And I don’t blame her.
So, how has all this affected the other erotic writers out there? In a hugely positive light, in my opinion. E. L. James’ books have taken the erotica and erotic romance genres and thrust them into the limelight, making them more socially acceptable. The power of word of mouth has been colossal, and women are rushing out to buy the Fifty Shades books on the recommendation of their friends, or borrowing them from one another. You can scarcely have an hour pass by where the books aren’t mentioned on the various social media networks. This free publicity is backed up by a huge marketing campaign. For example, there are advertisements in the London Underground and on the sides of buses, which are seen by millions of people. I dread to think how much that has eaten into the publisher’s advertising budget. But I’m sure they’ll make it back many times over.
Of course, once readers have finished all three books, they’ll be looking for something else to read. And this is where writers belonging to a genre largely ignored by the mainstream up until now come in. These writers and their books have always been there; it’s just that many people hadn’t noticed them before. Now, however, e-readers have really come into their own, and more and more people are happy to load up their devices with erotica and erotic romance, and read them in public, as well as in private. For the braver contingent, going into a bookstore and browsing the erotica section—if the store has one, of course—has become a much more acceptable thing to do, as has reading an erotic paperback on the Tube, bus, or train. The genre is no longer confined only to the privacy of homes and bedrooms.
Now that E. L. James is well and truly out there, the UK media are seeking out the next news article to ride the same wave. As a result, other erotic writers are being spotlighted. Channel 5 News did a segment on erotic fiction and the rise of e-readers, bringing in a popular erotic writer to give her opinion—and to plug her own books. The Guardian, the Daily Express, the Independent, the Mail Online, the Huffington Post (UK), and several regional newspapers have all published pieces on erotic writers and erotic fiction. The writers included have all benefited greatly from the publicity, and although they may not yet be counting their millions, it is having a very positive effect on sales for them and for the genre as a whole.
These writers are also taking matters into their own hands. Realizing that the reading public is now hungry for erotic fiction, particularly in the BDSM subgenre, they’re promoting their books with a vengeance. There are pages on Facebook, hashtags on Twitter, groups on Goodreads, and boards on Pinterest dedicated to recommending books to read after Fifty Shades of Grey. Articles and blog posts with the theme “If you liked Fifty Shades of Grey, you’ll love this” are springing up all over the web. Whether they love or hate—or haven’t read—the book that started it all, writers are taking advantage of the sudden popularity of the genre. And why shouldn’t they? Like E. L. James, they’ve worked hard to write these books, so it’s only fair that they should get some recognition for it, and hopefully gain lots more new readers.
Publishers have jumped on the bandwagon, too. Erotica had already been experiencing a rise in popularity due to the increasing sales of e-readers, but following the Fifty Shades of Grey media furor, publishers are seeing huge increases in sales of erotica, so naturally they want more of it. Companies that already published erotica are desperate for their writers to pen more of it—particularly if it’s BDSM—and several publishers that didn’t have an erotica list have now started one. Black Lace, one of the earliest—and arguably still the most popular—erotica imprints, stopped commissioning new content back in 2009, much to the dismay of readers and writers alike. However, the veteran erotica imprint is reopening its doors. June 2012 saw the rerelease of an older title with a redesigned cover bearing no imagery and few colors, aimed at the Fifty Shades of Grey readership. A bright pink flash on the cover proclaims, “If you like Fifty Shades of Grey you’ll LOVE this!” Many popular titles are being given new covers, and a peek at Amazon reveals that brand-new erotica and erotic romance titles from Black Lace can be expected starting September 2012.
So, in my opinion, particularly as an erotic writer, this is good news all round. It doesn’t matter what labels are being given to Fifty Shades of Grey and other books in the erotica and erotic romance genres. What matters is the amount of publicity and increased sales and readership that have come from the media uproar. Personally, if I were selling millions of copies of my books, the media could label it anything they wanted, and I wouldn’t care. I would simply laugh all the way to the bank, and I know many writers that feel exactly the same way.
LUCY FELTHOUSE is a graduate of the University of Derby, where she studied creative writing. During her first year, she was dared to write an erotic story—so she did. It went down like a storm and she’s never looked back. Lucy has had stories published by Cleis Press, Constable and Robinson, Decadent Publishing, Ellora’s Cave, Ever-night Publishing, House of Erotica, Ravenous Romance, Resplendence Publishing, Sweetmeats Press, and Xcite Books. She is also the editor of Uniform Behaviour, Seducing the Myth, Smut by the Sea, and Smut in the City. Find out more at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk.