14 DAY TRIAL // After the success Stephenie Meyer had with “Twilight,” it's not really that much of a surprise that anything Twilight-inspired also sells like hot cakes. E.L. James, the woman behind the “Fifty Shades” trilogy, has made a fortune off of it.
The story in “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the first novel, was initially meant as a different take on the Edward the vampire – Bella the mortal girl love story, one geared for a more mature reader.
It then evolved into something different and, according to a recent report in Gawker, it's now a direct competitor to “Twilight.”
Granted, James is still miles away from having the kind of money that Meyer has today, but it will happen in time, industry insiders are saying.
As of now, James is making $1.34 million (€1.06 million) a week off of the trilogy – definitely not bad for an amateur author who has been so harshly criticized for not having the slightest idea about what being an author meant.
“50 Shades of Grey author E.L. James – Snowqueens Icedragon to her fans – is purportedly making an estimated $1.34 million [€1.06 million] a week off her quaint little country romance novel. Having sold 20 million copies and counting, the trilogy is calmly and methodically shattering every previous sales record in the world,” Gawker writes.
Come to think of it, this is how Meyer too became one of the highest earning authors of the day. With a “Fifty Shades” movie in the work, James is treading in Meyer's footsteps.
“E.L. James earns 7% royalty on every $14 [€11.11] paperback and 25% royalty on every $10 [€7.9] ebook sold. Last month 4 million paperbacks and 1 million ebooks were sold,” Gawker reports, crunching the numbers.
“E.L James earns $191K [€151,671.5] a day, give or take. In March Universal/Focus features paid $5 million [€3.9 million] for the rights to the 50 Shades movies,” says the same media outlet.
Whether James will be involved in the film as Meyer was on all “Twilight” installments is not yet known. However, considering that the former fashioned her entire success as an author on the latter's, chances are she will be.
For the time being, not much is known about the feature film adaptation of the trilogy, whose literary merits are still being debated as we speak.
Fans (that is, those who loved the books) are playing the guessing game on which stars would be ideal for the two leads. What we do know for certain is that neither Selena Gomez nor Chris Pine will be involved in the project.