E L James?

Anyone read the E L James trilogy? I believe the first book is called Fifty Shades of Grey. Would you recommend it? Is it worth the $17.99 price tag?

Personally, I would steer well clear of it - the entire trilogy used to be a Twilight fanfiction posted online for free, with the two main characters being named Edward Cullen and Bella Swan !

From what I've heard, the only edits made were to change the character's names and it still contains all the original grammar errors and bad writing as when it was online, not to mention a ton of Britishisms that have no place being in a book set in the US.

I'll admit that I tried to read it back in 2009 when it was a fanfiction (and not even being considered for publication yet) and I gave up after about 5 chapters... it's just basically hundreds of pages of porn and not much else. It wasn't even planned out or written as three books in the first place, but the author split it into three for publishing, presumably to make more money from it.

If you want to read the books without paying the extortionate amount of money they're charging for them (£20 per book on UK Amazon, $20-$30 per book on US Amazon), I believe they are still available for free around the internet (although under their original name and still with Edward and Bella as the main characters).

Personally, I would steer well clear of it - the entire trilogy used to be a Twilight fanfiction posted online for free, with the two main characters being named Edward Cullen and Bella Swan !

From what I've heard, the only edits made were to change the character's names and it still contains all the original grammar errors and bad writing as when it was online, not to mention a ton of Britishisms that have no place being in a book set in the US.

I'll admit that I tried to read it back in 2009 when it was a fanfiction (and not even being considered for publication yet) and I gave up after about 5 chapters... it's just basically hundreds of pages of porn and not much else. It wasn't even planned out or written as three books in the first place, but the author split it into three for publishing, presumably to make more money from it.

If you want to read the books without paying the extortionate amount of money they're charging for them (£20 per book on UK Amazon, $20-$30 per book on US Amazon), I believe they are still available for free around the internet (although under their original name and still with Edward and Bella as the main characters).

This sounds awful. I had a hard enough time getting through the Twilight books. I'll take your advice and steer clear.

I saw your thread and then saw this http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/03/the_new_smutty_novel_fifty_shade_of_grey_.html

I saw your thread and then saw this http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/03/the_new_smutty_novel_fifty_shade_of_grey_.html

I'm not sure I understand the hype of this book or how it went from fan-fiction to mainstream. There are plenty of other books that feature BDSM in them. In fact, I just finished one by Lora Leigh. *scratches head*

I'm not sure I understand the hype of this book or how it went from fan-fiction to mainstream.

The book is essentially the most popular Twilight fanfiction that has ever been written... it is the most well-known Twilight story out there, written by essentially the most 'famous' author in the fandom. It apparently received over 15,000 reviews when it was posted online.

Unfortunately, the popularity of the story caused the author believe that it was good enough for mainstream publishing (despite the fact that publishing is generally considered a big no-no when it comes to fanfiction, due to the fact that it is a derivative work based on someone else's creation) and she decided to self-publish using an online vanity publishing house that specialises in taking Twilight fanfiction and publishing it as so-called 'original fiction' (which it isn't really, since it was written about already existing characters - just changing the names doesn't change the character traits).

I believe the mainstream hype is partly due to the author and her husband both working in the media business and knowing how to do good PR, and also partly due to the hundreds, maybe even thousands, of Twilight fans who have no doubt been spreading the word online.

Personally, I feel that the whole thing is morally wrong (and there might possibly be legal issues with it as well - that's a bit of a grey area though), as the whole point of fanfiction is that it is based on someone else's work and when you post it online, you include a disclaimer stating that you don't own the characters and that you have no intention of profiting from the work.