I do not criticize the thousands of Harlequin books that have been sold over the years, whose demographic is largely housewives (they are trying to change that to a younger demographic). Note, I wasn't totally accurate there. I think house wives implies stay at home moms exclusively, I should have said working mothers and house wives. I apologize for failing that distinction. The fastest growing aspect of ebooks is in fact romance novels.
I have not read Fifty Shades in its entirety but I did run a grammar check on it and read a few snippets here or there. While the characters are dull, unrealistic, and caricatures of Mary Janes and Marty Joes, the writing itself is not terrible. I have truly read far worse. Even a top selling book like Hunger Games has its share of horrible editing (and that didn't start off as an ebook).
People wouldn't have "wanted to see what the fuss was about" until it hit the top selling lists. Once it did, that was all she wrote. Most top sellers actually benefit from that sort of social mind share. People talking about some new book, others want to read it, and they're peer pressured into getting it to so they can belong to the conversation.
I hate that Fifty Shades is part of literary culture now. I hate that there's a lot of other shit out there, too. But I choose to believe that freedom to publish is better than being barred by publishing houses from publishing.
Check out Wool for a fascinating ebook that made the guy a millionaire.
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