What I Think About "50 Shades..." and Today's Publishing

     Where do I begin?  Once Upon a Time...

I went looking for a fun summer read.  One that was well written, smutty, with a fun plot, but with nothing as serious as death anywhere in the book.  Well it's fall and I still am looking for such a book.   

The book that I am reading right now is very smutty, but there is a death of a child looming in the heroine's backstory.  Needless to say when I got past the first few pages, which were undeniably hot, only to discover the mention of the unbearably sad history, I was disappointed.  There's more to the sad history; not all of it has been revealed yet.   I'd like to tell the author: the backstory is not why I'm turning the pages.   Kinda miffed like I was when I wasted money on the mismarketed film, My Girl. 

The frontstory, shall we call it- is hot though, and the key players are not in their 20's, (no mention of age thus far) so I'll finish the book; flipping through the "reality" pages quickly, because once again, I get enough of that in my real life.

So, as the story goes, I was on Linkedin this morning and ran across the title, "How '50 Shades of Grey' Has Affected Publishing."  I am one of the few who has not read, 50 Shades..., due to the fact that the key players are a 21 year old virgin and a not yet 30 year old, billionaire nut job.  Whatever.   Not my cup of tea, for reasons that I've stated before, but I was curious as to how others thought the book has changed publishing.  In the article it states that Amazon has sold more copies of 50 Shades than the whole Harry Potter series combined.  Apparently Harry Potter's author JK Rowling suggested the thought that her series may have sold even more, (more than 400 million books as of June 2013) had she written stories so that Harry was a little more creative with his wand.  While I am sure that Ms. Rowling meant this comment in jest, lest she be greedy to put it mildly; there is now an  e-publisher, who has taken works of classic literature and smutted them up.

My response?:  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

WHAT THE FLIP?!

Not surprising, this may not be news for you, as it is to me.  For instance, Clandestine Classics Pride & Prejudice Annotated , was "published" in 2013.  While I enjoy a good smut book, I have no desire to read someone else's imagining of Miss Bennett and Mr. Darcy engaging in the behavior that put Mr. Wickam and dear silly Lydia in the societal doghouse.  As much as I am enjoying the show, Sleepy Hollow, the thought of a 3-way, all the while with a headless horseman galloping around; is among other things in my opinion,  just plain silly.

Just as I get a little irritated when there is a remake of a movie, (Ocean's Eleven excluded): have we reached a point where there's no new stories to be told?  In my opinion, not even close.

This is just my opinion.  Some of the Clandestine Classics have good reviews, and from what I've read, the authors have substantial bodies of works that they have written, in addition to the Clandenstine books that they penned.

There's also Quirk Books- publishers of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies; (soon to be a film) and Sense & Sensibility & Seamonsters; and then Amanda Grange's Mr. Darcy, Vampyre.

Then of course we have the Twilight series ...

So we have the classics;  the classics get erotic or down and dirty- however you like; then the classics get scary; again however you like; then we have the scaries get erotic or down and dirty.

Have we come full circle?  More like a Tilt O' Whirl.  


Wonder what Jane would make of it all?

Perhaps a quote from Mr. Bennet states it best:

 "For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?"