Fifty Shades of Grey

 

Erika Leonard (born Erika Mitchell; 7 March 1963), better known by the pen name E L James, is the British author of the bestselling erotic romance novels trilogy Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker, and Fifty Shades Freed. The combined novels have sold over 35 million copies in the United States, and over 70 million copies worldwide, setting the record as the fastest selling paperback of all time.

 

In 2012, Time magazine named her one of "The World's 100 Most Influential People."

 

 

Fifty Shades trilogy

 

James initially wrote fanfiction under the pen name "Snowqueens Icedragon", with her most notable work being a Twilight fanfiction that eventually developed into Fifty Shades of Grey, and subsequent film adaptation. James has spoken of her shock at the success of the book. "The explosion of interest has taken me completely by surprise" she said.

 

James has described the Fifty Shades trilogy as "my midlife crisis, writ large. All my fantasies in there, and that's it." She did not start to write until January 2009, as she revealed while still active on fanfiction.net as Snowqueen's Icedragon: "I started writing in January 2009 after I finished the Twilight saga, and I haven't stopped since. I discovered Fan Fiction in August 2009. Since then I have written my two fics and plan on doing at least one more. After that... who knows?" In August 2013, sales of the trilogy saw James top the Forbes' list of the highest-st-earning authors with earnings of $95m which included $5m for the film rights to Fifty Shades of Grey.

 

Awards and Honors

 

2012 Time 100 by Time magazine, "The 100 Most Influential People in the World"

2012 Publishers Weekly "Publishing Person of the Year".

2012 National Book Award (UK), "Popular Fiction Book of the Year", Fifty Shades of Grey

2012 National Book Award (UK), "Book of the Year", Fifty Shades of Grey

 

Bibliography

 

Fifty Shades of Grey (2011) Best seller

Fifty Shades Darker (2011)

Fifty Shades Freed (2011)