Monday, April 23, 2012

Are You Trendy?

As an author of erotic romance, I feel it's my job to check out what's hot in the marketplace. And I must tell you, the rabid success of Fifty Shades of Grey has me practically giddy. Why? Because it's my genre and that can only be good for those of us who write erotic romance and erotica.

The book is everywhere. Everyone seems to know about it. And why shouldn't they? The book has spent 6 weeks parked at the pinnacle of the New York Times bestseller list. Suddenly erotic is perfectly acceptable.

My fairly conservative internist told me she and her husband are reading it. Friends from all walks of life are asking me if I am familiar with it. It's sweeping the literary world.

What's truly amazing about this is that the book began its life as a self-published project. Granted, it has its flaws. I counted a whole bunch of repeated words and phrases, a couple dangling modifiers at which my editors would cringe. But the bottom line is here's an author who self-published an erotic trilogy and she's no doubt a millionaire by now.

Bravo to EL James. If I could change one thing about the books, it's that I wish I'd been the one to write them! So what are you waiting for - check out the trend. Or have you already?


7 comments:

Dalton Diaz said...

It's certainly giving a boost to the erotica world, even the BDSM authors. It may not be a great accounting of the life, but it's putting it front and center, as you said.

Wynter said...

I sure hope so. I still think it's a good book - very hot, lots of good sexual tension. Just a few technical issues that should have been edited out. Overall, I liked it.

Jina Bacarr said...

Excellent point about knowing what's out there--I think it all comes down to having passion for what you're writing about, no matter what the trend.

In this case, following your passion is also the trend--it doesn't get any better than that!

Wynter said...

Very true about following your passion, Jina.

Naima Simone said...

What a coincidence! I saw this trilogy for the first time today on B & N's site! I hadn't heard about it before today. I think it's great that people who wouldn't ordinarily think about reading erotic romance is giving it a try. It opens doors for them to read other authors and enjoy more books from our genre! Yay!

Wynter said...

I'm excited about it too, Naima. I think it could be awesome for those of us who write in the genre. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Casey Crow said...

It's definitely putting erotic romance in the spotlight!