50 Shades of Grey to be Published in Hardcover -- Why We Care

Picture from EL James's website

Yup, here it is! 50 Shades of... cardboard, now (or whatever hardcovers are made of). It will be released on January 29th, "in time for Valentine's day".... I can't even imagine.

ANYHOW

There is an interesting article about this publication and its effects on publishing.

Basically, this publication is a reversal of the standard. Usually, first comes the hardcover, and then the paperback. According to the article, the reasoning behind the paper-back first decision was that the series was originally self-published by a very small publisher. Random House (who bought the rights and mass-marketed the books) didn't feel people would buy an expensive hardcover if they had bought the ebooks and print-on-demand books.

Long story short, due to the self-publication, the series was published first in paperback, and then in hardcover.

Why do we care?

Because, according to the article, this might set a new standard in publishing.

Romance, a popular genre on Amazon, has many, many ebooks -- maybe, some of them will go on to be published by a major house. Due to the standard EL James has created, ebooks might get extra attention.

The publishing houses can first publish the book in paperback (to lessen expenses), and if the books are crazy popular, they can publish them in hardcover. This might apply to other genres as well and other novels that become "popular as ebooks and are then bought by traditional publishers."

This might create a new process of purchase in publishing (how about all them p's?).

All I just said was basically a summary of the article (but the article has more details on the features of the hardcover, the story behind 50 Shades's publishing journey, and more).

What I want to know is whether this will open the doors for ebooks, or close them . Will ebooks be more accepted if traditional publishers have a way to make profits off of them? Will ebooks lose the stigma they have?

These are all questions to ponder.

2012 was a major year for publishing history (the consolidation of the Big 6 publishers to the Big 5, 50 Shades of Grey, etc). It looks like 2013 is gearing up to be the same (and two weeks haven't even passed ).

At the end, we know one thing: after January 29th, 50 Shades will dominate the hardcover fiction bestseller list on Amazon, pushing JK Rowling's The Casual Vacancy even further back :( Sigh.

What do you think about this?

What if? 50 Shades of Snow White

THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN!!! I loved writing this, and I hope you guys catch all the little details, and I hope you enjoy this :) This is for the What if? Fairytale Blogfest, and my entry is 50 SHADES OF SNOW WHITE for Team Comedy. Woo!


Snow White ran through the dark forest, twigs and thorns slashing at her face and drawing blood. It felt good, but she had to keep running -- her crazy step-mother wanted to kill her.

She came across a small house in the woods, and peeking through the window, she saw seven little figures bobbing up and down like tops.

"Seven men all alone in a house," Snow said. "Yes. My favorite."

So she walked in, and of course, the seven men went crazy after her except one guy, who lay in the corner snarling.

"Oh, don't mind Grumpy," said Sleepy (which was Snow's favorite dwarf, because she loved to sleep).

"That's okay. I'll teach him how to be Happy," Snow said, and everyone laughed.

This all ended when the Queen arrived, holding a bright red apple, and Snow, like any idiot would do, ate it.

"Ah ha!" the Queen cried, jubilant with joy. "Snow has fallen!" (The dwarfs looked up, expecting to see a blizzard, but it was sunny. Then, they saw her body and were not confused.)

It was a sad, quiet funeral. Her body was put in a golden tomb, and Sleepy put a flower between Snow's crossed hands. They put flowers all around the tomb. Everyone cried.

That all ended when Prince Harming rode into town. He snatched the flower from Snow's hand and threw it aside quite roughly (he had a thing about stealing women's flowers) and planted a kiss right on Snow's mouth.

"Ow!" Snow said, rising on top of the tomb, the flowers completely messed up by this time. "You hurt my hand." But with one look at Prince Harming's gorgeous face, she blushed, and said, "It's all right."

And they went riding happily ever after.

Hope you guys liked it :) First time writing something like that... it was fun :) Thanks again! Check out the rest of the entries here:

Why 50 Shades of Gray is a Bestseller

I can just imagine the backlash I'll get for writing this post.  I ran this past a few friends of mine, and I got a little taste of what to expect: They told me not to write this.

But you can never tell a writer to keep quiet :)

50 Shades of Gray, for those of you who don't know, is a erotic adult novel by E. L. James that revolves around wealthy Christian Gray's... exploits with young Anastasia Steele. (For the rest of the summary, go here.) Basically, Gray forces Steele into a bunch of sexual experiments which she finds scary at first, but exhilirating. She loves being submissive.

I can't say it better than Cupcake's (hehe) review on Amazon.

"Is 50 Shades Darker good? Hell to the no, it is not good. But is it entertaining? Yes. Is it hot? Yes. Is it worth reading? Yes..... Do not, however, mistake an enjoyable read for something well written, because this is NOT well written. It's like literary crack. You know it's bad for you, and you feel dirty and low for enjoying it, but you can't stop."

Cupcake, a Top 1000 reviewer on Amazon (who seems incredibly knowledgable about the craft of writing) gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. Why?


And here is where it gets exciting. This book has TONS of faults, mainly: its writing is not the best. Also, people get upset about its origins as a Twilight fan fiction.

Why is this a bestseller, if it is riddled with bad writing and content most people shy away from? Because, it is content most people shy away from. You don't have to admit it (and most of you probably won't) but everyone had their... dreams. James wrote a book that exposed this dream as rawly as possible; she wrote what everyone else shies away from; what they dare not write. She wrote a book as opposite from today's moral standards as possible.

I respect E.L. James. There, I said it (and I'm a guy). I bet all of you are going to attack me now. I respect her not for her writing, but for her raw material and the courage it must have taken to publish this in today's market. I hope in my writing, I can evoke emotions (maybe not the same emotions as in James' books) that are as raw as hers. Mine won't be erotic, but hers was. So what? She didn't do any editing (maybe she went a bit too far in this ;) ) of the 'inappropriate' content of her book. She wrote the book how she felt it. And that paid off.

I ask you, did you, before this book, ever freely discuss some of the fantasies you had with a large number of people? This book opened that gate for so many women (and men) worldwide. JK Rowling said that there is a dark side to humanity, and it is much better to bring it into the light and discuss it rather than ignoring that it ever exists. (If you don't read any other part of this post, read that line.)

I hate censorship. I hate it with a passion, and most people are under the false impression that censorship must be tangible. No. It can take form as the invisible social restrictions on our thought. E.L. James exposed the desires of people worldwide, and she shattered some of those restrictions. She wrote something that everyone else would be afraid to write. And she wrote it rawly: No toning it down. This is why she is a bestseller.

I agree, she could have use a GOOD number of years in writing lessons and she could have used a good editor. But she did wrote most of us would never dream to write (admit it). E.L. James wrote something that we all think about, but we get scared to talk about. She opened up gates of thinking worldwide (read JK Rowling's quote again on why this is important). That is something all writers strive (and mostly fail) to achieve. That is why she is a bestseller.

What do you think? (I'm almost too scared to ask that.)

And don't forget to subscribe for more posts like this! You get free cookies :) Maybe. Not really. But still :)