Last year, 50 Shades of Grey was the talk of the town. Websites and media outlets held it up as an example of more liberal sexual attitudes across America, as a sign that the eBook revolution had begun, or even, if you read the websites I read, that self-publishing was a potential road to riches... if we could only figure out the formula of how it got so big.
For self-publishers, it was the shot in the dark that suddenly everyone was talking about. Could we do that? What could we learn from 50 Shades of Grey? Should we all be writing erotica now?
It turns out, though, that I think there are two much more important lessons all self-publishers can learn from that eBook success.
Not really self-published
Catherine Ryan Howard, who writes a great caffeinated blog about self-publishing in general, posted a nuanced opinion about how 50 Shades of Grey was not really a self-publishing success. It was, in her opinion, a traditional publishing success. Her point is a good one. Not very many people had heard of it before the author got signed to a book deal. The book deal itself was mostly the story, and it turned out to be a great gamble for the publisher because it gave thousands of people license to buy soft erotica.
What is the lesson here? The story about your book is as important as the story inside the book.
Mix-tape inspiration
The second thing I find intriguing is that 50 Shades of Grey started out as fan fiction based on the Twilight series. You can read about all the details here. That post is all about digging up the truth about the origins of the book and exposing the hypocrisy of the publisher in trying to keep people from copying or grafting ideas from 50 Shades of Grey. That's an interesting argument about the extent to which our current reading and writing culture accepts the borrowing of content and inspiration.
But what's the lesson here? Authors do great work when inspired by other authors. If you're an author, read a lot and write when you feel inspired.
Image courtesy of FreeDownload50shadesofgrey
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