Where do you stand on Fifty Shades of Grey? Apart from aggressively on the head of the person you would most like to have sex with, obviously, whilst wearing a gimp mask and with flowing silk ties around your wrists. That is a given. Where, though, do you stand in terms of the publishing industry? Do you or do you not approve or disapprove of the phenomenon that is Fifty Shades of Grey?

annecater:

The book has become the fastest adult paperback novel to sell one million print copies. Now Amazon has confirmed that it's the first book to sell over a million on kindle. However, scroll through the thousands of online reviews for Fifty Shades and the bad reviews easily outnumber the praise by 20 to one.

Even with negative to positive reviews at 20:1, given the quantities sold, I think the number of people enjoying the series is still far greater than any other book (currently and perhaps historically).  Regardless of the negative publicity, an awful lot of readers are going on to buy books 2 & 3, which I don't think would be the case if the majority of buyers really didn't like the first one.  It's not a book I will touch with a bargepole, personally, but as somebody who would dearly like to see bookshops still on the high street in 10 years time, I welcome anything that is driving buyers into bookshops.  Someone in a marketing department somewhere has just done the book trade a huge favour!

 

Yup it is terribly written, sure there are many many better books available however people are reading who never pick up books and I will always welcome that.

lainy_79:

people are reading who never pick up books and I will always welcome that.

 

me too Lain, let's just hope it doesn't put them off ever picking up a book again.........

hippystick:

lainy_79:

people are reading who never pick up books and I will always welcome that.

 

me too Lain, let's just hope it doesn't put them off ever picking up a book again.........

I doubt it Tracy as I've seen comments from a lot of people on FB that I'm friends with socially about having read them, when I've not known that they like reading and the majority are raving about it.  Let's hope that I see other comments about what they've been reading in the future too and I might spark up conversations about books with them when I see them out.

 

Personally, I don't think that this 'book' will encourage further reading.  I think the titallating subject is making people go out and buy it, and I really doubt that it will increase book sales as a whole.  I suspect that people will read this series, and maybe the countless copy-cat novels that will appear, and doubt very much that they will want to progress on to any other reading.  Yes, there may well be a few that decide to read more, but personally I very much doubt it.

I've not read it, I have no interest in reading it but from what I've gathered on here, it's very very badly written, so to be honest, I'd rather people read nothing than read things that are badly written.    

It's the serious, long-term authors that I really feel sorry for - those that write well  - how must they feel seeing how many copies of '50' are being sold, and how much money the author is raking in from it.  It must be terribly demotivating for them.

annecater:

Personally, I don't think that this 'book' will encourage further reading.  I think the titallating subject is making people go out and buy it, and I really doubt that it will increase book sales as a whole.  I suspect that people will read this series, and maybe the countless copy-cat novels that will appear, and doubt very much that they will want to progress on to any other reading.  Yes, there may well be a few that decide to read more, but personally I very much doubt it.

Even if only a tiny fraction of the otherwise-non-book-buyers go on to read something else, it's still an increase, and potentially a good number of people.  And even if they don't buy a book ever again, it's still a huge boost to booksellers for the present.

 

annecater:

from what I've gathered on here, it's very very badly written, so to be honest, I'd rather people read nothing than read things that are badly written.

 Maybe the next book they buy will be better written.  I think it's a bit like reluctant readers at school (although I'm not suggesting schoolkids should read 50 Shades!), sometimes it's just finding one thing that hooks them, and then when they realise how much they can actually enjoy reading, they come back for more.  Maybe the next book they read won't be well written.   There are plenty of badly written books already out there, so there is clearly already a market for them.  I would love it if people only read well written books, but I'd rather people enjoy the act of reading than not read at all.  Each to their own.

 

annecater:

It's the serious, long-term authors that I really feel sorry for - those that write well  - how must they feel seeing how many copies of '50' are being sold, and how much money the author is raking in from it.  It must be terribly demotivating for them.

I do agree.  There are probably some authors whose peak sales are during the 'summer reading' period, and they will have lost sales & readers, as a result. But 50 Shades is a phenomenon, and there hasn't been anything like it in the book trade before.  Once the craziness dies down (I'm sure it will, eventually!) the decent authors will be able to get on with making a living again.  I don't think the copycats various publishers are bringing out will have anything like the same success & the charity shops will be full of 50 Shades before long.

 

 

 

I couldn't agree more to your responses above Su.  I totally agree with all your points.  If this book series does show people a love for reading and they think well that wasn't a bad way to spend my time then well done that book series I say.  At the end of the day there are a lot of really literary books out there that I wouldn't touch with a barge pole and I've no interest at all to read but there are also a lot of other books that I will read, so I'm happy to plod on reading what I enjoy and I hope that there will be others who've read the 50 series that go on to do the same.  Long live reading.

In my youth I read The Story of O and other such literary gems. They certainly didn't do my love of reading any harm and if S of G brings people to books I suppose it is a good thing - though after the hype attending S of G and its sisters anything else might feel a trifle, um, boring?

tolly18:

In my youth I read The Story of O and other such literary gems. They certainly didn't do my love of reading any harm and if S of G brings people to books I suppose it is a good thing - though after the hype attending S of G and its sisters anything else might feel a trifle, um, boring?

That's what I'm trying to say Penny, thank you.   I think anything after the '50' series is going to seem boring to these new readers.   Of course I would be pleased if by reading the '50' series a whole new book-buying community were formed, but I very much doubt it - I've overheard many conversations about the books, and they are not talking about the act of reading, or the writing.  The main content of the conversations seems to be around sex.

The boost to booksellers is great, but I suspect that most of the copies will have been purchased from supermarkets - so the knock-on effect to bookselling as an industry could be questioned?

I have absolutely no problem with people reading what they want to, I've always defended the right to publish semi-famous people's so-called autobiographies and ghost-written novels, in the belief that profits from these will enable the publishers to go on to publish more books, and I really hope that this is what will happen with this series.

I've read loads of what many people would consider to be 'trash' over the years and like Penny, they didn't harm my love of reading either - but the difference with us is that we were already readers, these were not our first proper taste of reading.  I think that there is a huge difference.

I would just like to have seen this massive book-buying and reading spree to have been caused by something well-written (rather like Harry Potter engaging children and young people)

annecater:

I would just like to have seen this massive book-buying and reading spree to have been caused by something well-written (rather like Harry Potter engaging children and young people)

Well, maybe publishers will learn from the success of the 50 Shades marketing campaign, and next time use it to hype up something more worthwhile that in turn will lead to encouraging new book-buyers beyond that single purchase.  

 

well i agree its not greatly written but i am enjoying it, though i seem to be in a minority that are fed up of the `sex` scenes now and im skimming those, far too repetitive.

ive had to lend mine to a couple of people in work and they never read books, i dont think theres a staff member who hasnt read it and your quizzed as to how far in the book you have got each morning!

do i get brownie points for buying them in waterstones though and not a supermarket ;-)

annecater:

tolly18:

In my youth I read The Story of O and other such literary gems. They certainly didn't do my love of reading any harm and if S of G brings people to books I suppose it is a good thing - though after the hype attending S of G and its sisters anything else might feel a trifle, um, boring?

That's what I'm trying to say Penny, thank you.   I think anything after the '50' series is going to seem boring to these new readers.   Of course I would be pleased if by reading the '50' series a whole new book-buying community were formed, but I very much doubt it - I've overheard many conversations about the books, and they are not talking about the act of reading, or the writing.  The main content of the conversations seems to be around sex.

I agree that some people might find other books boring too.  Apparently there is a storyline in there among the sex and hopefully some people might have looked beyond the sex bits and enjoyed the storyline as well.  Maybe we're all just hoping that it will encourage others to read and get from reading the same amount of enjoyment out of it as we do.

 

I admit (with great shame) that i gave it a go.  In fairness i borrowed a copy someone had downloaded as i wouldn't encourage it by giving it another sale.  I got about 6 chapters in and just didn't get what the fuss was about.  It is so poorly written and the story is abysmal.  I know that people say they don't watch porn for the plot, so the intended audience of this book probably aren't reading it for huge character depth or development, but still..

I couldn't bring myself to carry on reading it.  This week, that i have noticed, (as i might have missed some), 13 people reading it on the bus and so many friends on facebook are reading and raving about it and it's torn around my work, a place where a book is usually used to save a wonky table leg.  If the people suddenly interested in reading carry on reading, great.  Can't see it happening though. 

 

annecater:

Personally, I don't think that this 'book' will encourage further reading.  I think the titallating subject is making people go out and buy it, and I really doubt that it will increase book sales as a whole.  I suspect that people will read this series, and maybe the countless copy-cat novels that will appear, and doubt very much that they will want to progress on to any other reading.  Yes, there may well be a few that decide to read more, but personally I very much doubt it.

What Anne said

Judging by my FB feed, the women who are reading it NEVER EVER talk about reading and (this may be my own prejudice here) probably never will again.