Everyone is talking about 50 SHADES OF GRAY by E L James

Here’s a link posted by Carly Phillips about the 50 Shades of Grey. http://www.plotmonkeys.com/2012/03/15/fifty-shades-my-mea-culpa/ Summation: she loves the trilogy, with a few reservations, but hates the general snobbery of mainstream press because they don’t git erotic romance, and are tittering about it, etc.

Here’s NPR — NPR! — talking about 50 Shades: http://www.npr.org/2012/03/15/148605287/fifty-shades-of-grey-publishings-sexiest-trend Summation: This stuff by E L James came out of fan fiction.  Basically it’s a tweaked Twilight story turned into an erotic romance– is this okay???? What does this mean for the publishing world & fan fiction? Etc, etc.

Meanwhile, I had just become aware of 50 Shades of Grey while checking out the best selling rankings on B&N and Amazon.  Something I hadn’t done in at least a year. I talked about it with one writerly friend and then brought it up at a local group of romance writers who gather to drink coffee, gossip, talk about craft and publishing.

I brought it up because it was published by The Writer’s Coffee Shop Publishing.  Who’s ever heard of them? Nobody that’s who.  In fact, for a moment there (you’re going to laugh) I wondered: is E L James a pen name for Eloisa James?  (Yeah, I don’t think so).

I came home, got on Facebook and saw a lot of posts about the trilogy.  So bizarre.  Well, to paraphrase powerhouse agent Louise Fury: All the cards are up in the air.  Many people fear these times in publishing, but the fact is that you can do whatever you want to do right now.

Think I’ll go order the series now…;>