Weird. My sources are similar (a friend who's a published author, etc) and they don't take kindly to plagiarism. It's not about churning out the same novel with different names, it's about theft, and when they get caught, it's occasionally hilarious.Greg wrote:The person I went to school with who writes romance novels. As for the demographics of romance readers, and their buying habits, that's everything I've ever read about the subject, from a wide range of sources.
But I guess that just comes down to different experiences.
Except that's not it. Twilight is stupid, boring, and terrible, but it's actually pretty original. Fifty Shades of Grey is Twilight, only the names have been changed to protect the legally liable. Oh, and some sex thrown in by someone who has a poorer understanding of how it works than your average Catholic schoolgirl.Windy Wilson wrote:There's always been hack writing and the good stuff. These complaints about the derivative nature of Fifty Shades of Gray and the Twilight Series are also re-runs,
I guess in short, Twilight is Twilight, and Fifty Shades is Twilight but worse. Think Edward stalking Bella was romantic? Then try Fifty Shades of Grey, where [strike]Edward[/strike] Christian stalks [strike]Bella[/strike] Ana personally, electronically, and using a private investigator! And essentially kidnaps her while she's drunk off her ass! Ladies, don't you wish your husband was a dangerous dreamboat like him?
Eh, the main demographic's a bit older. It's "mommy porn," erotic literature for housewives too embarrassed to buy actual romance novels.Fifty Shades of Gray was young adult literature for people who had graduated from high school. Hardy Boys for sexually active girls.
Other than that? It's really a book with nothing for everyone. The oft-touted BDSM? Not even researched, so people who are into it won't get anything out of it at best (or will be horrified at how wrong it is). The story? Mostly bland filler designed to bridge between repetitive sex scenes. Seriously, they're all "he starts to move, really move, and I explode all around him" with some blather about her "inner goddess" for some reason. They're so boring that even the author starts skipping them halfway through the second novel. So it's not even delivering if you're after porn. Interesting characters? None. Ana is even more of a stupid blank than Bella, and despite how often everyone keeps telling her how smart and independent she is, she's the exact opposite. Christian is just some rich jerk who gets off on hitting people and controlling every aspect of their lives, and everyone else is just incidental.
Its success is really quite baffling. It's not fun, interesting, cathartic, or (and the worst sin for porn) remotely erotic. It's like... Gordon Ramsey's reaction to shark fin soup. "It tastes of nothing." And on top of that, it basically glorifies domestic abuse. I just don't get it.
)
