Who Wrote 50 Shades Of Gray And What Publishers Were Involved?

It’s been quite a long time since I read “50 Shades of Grey” by E.L. James (a British writer). E.L. James wrote this novel as fanfiction of the Twilight Saga under the pseudonym Stacy Silver, publishing it on the fanfiction website FanFiction under the title “Master of the Universe” for the Twilight fanfiction archive. The story was later rewritten as an original work, published under James’ real name as “50 Shades of Grey”. The book instantly became a cultural phenomenon and sparked a lot of interest to the discussion of BDSM in relationships. Most people are also unaware of the unusual publishing journey of this book. First it was self-published by The Writers’ Coffee Shop, an Australian virtual publisher in 2011. After it got huge traction on the internet, it was picked up by Vintage Books (a division of Random House) for a print edition in 2012 and got released worldwide.

What follows is the uncharted landscape of the journey to and the subsequent success of 50 Shades of Grey. First there were two further books to the trilogy, 50 Shades Darker and 50 Shades Freed. All three books in the series have gone on to sell over 150m copies worldwide making the series the best-selling of all time. The book was also adapted into a movie with the first of the trilogy released last year. The involvement of Vintage Books and their marketing of the controversial book has had a huge impact on the book’s success. As can be seen from James’ journey as a writer, initially starting off as a writer of fan fiction under the pseudonym Snowqueena under the title of ‘Master of the Universe’ for the famous book and film ‘Twilight’, her rise as a successful novelist is a truly modern day publishing phenomenon, causing excitement throughout the literary world.

E.L. James, Author. The book was first published by The Writer's Coffee Shop, and then procured by the major houses. In the US, it is published by Vintage Books, a division of Random House; in the UK by Arrow, an imprint of Cornerstone Publishing. As a digital indie novel that became a global print phenomenon, this book is an important part of publishing history.

This was written by E.L. James. The arc of the book’s publication is very well known. First published by The Writer’s Coffee Shop, then picked up by Random House’s Vintage imprint for wider physical distribution via Penguin Random House’s Arrow imprint for example, the book that proved huge online success could translate to huge traditional print success of equally vast proportions.