Fifty Shades trilogy, unanticipated side effect

Jacket covers of the Fifty Shades Trilogy



The New York Times

Published: March 9, 2012
By JULIE BOSMAN

“Discreetly Digital, Erotic Novel Sets American Women Abuzz

“Fifty Shades of Grey,” an erotic novel by an obscure author that has been described as “Mommy porn” and “Twilight” for grown-ups, has electrified women across the country, who have spread the word like gospel on Facebook pages, at school functions and in spin classes. Or as the handwritten tag on a paperback copy in a Montclair, N.J., bookstore helpfully noted, “Yes, this is THE book everyone is talking about.”

The problem has been finding it. The first book of a trilogy, it was published by a tiny independent press in Australia, and distribution in print has been limited and sluggish, leaving bookstores deprived of copies. The lion’s share of total sales (more than 250,000 copies for all three books) has come from ever-discreet e-book downloads, which have propelled “Fifty Shades of Grey” to No. 1 on the New York Times e-book fiction best-seller list for sales in the week ending March 3 and No. 3 position on Amazon’s best-seller list.”

The entire article can be found HERE

As an update to this article the Fifty Shades trilogy was 1, 2 and 3 on the NYT (combined hardback and e-books) bestseller list published on April 22, 2012. I think hardback sales may still be limited by shortage of HB copies, though the discreet nature of e-book sales may depress sale of HB copies. All my friends and I are reading the Fifty Shades books on our Nook or Kindle ereaders, which we carry in our dancebags. The books are AWESOME!

Unanticipated side effects: An unanticipated side effect of Fifty Shades popularity is that apparatus sales - to women - have tripled in Fasteners, our BDSM boutique in the past three weeks as women read the books and come in to be outfitted with what they need to pretend they are Ana Steele (at least in the bedroom) being fucked by Christian Grey while experiencing the pleasure/pain and fear of being gently caressed with a plaited leather riding crop or cuffed ankles and wrists to a spreader bar during rough sex. Even the sale of metal training balls has increased dramatically triggered by the scene in the book where Ana is taken to a party commando while wearing a pair of them. Fasteners manager has had to reorder the high end French plaited leather riding crops twice in the last week and right now there is a waiting list for them!

Actually the Fifty Shades novels while erotic are BDSM Lite, so as they become more widely read the vanilla American public is being introduced to the concept in an enjoyable way that allows them to be drawn ever closer to recognizing BDSM as an acceptable lifestyle between consenting adults. It will be interesting to see when the increase in sales at Fasteners plateaus or drops off as the novels reach saturation in the reading public and more women decide to experiment with letting their wild side enjoy D/s roleplay. The success of Fifty Shades will surely attract novels in the same genre by other writers. One can only hope that they are as well written.

Working in boots

Sorry, I’ll be tied up this weekend

Working in boots: The position of the boot-girl shown in the image accompanying this entry is a favorite of ‘shoe sniffers’ men who love to smell a woman’s sweaty boots during sex. It is also favored by men who are very well endowed because a woman can be penetrated the deepest (with the least pain and injury) when she is horizontal on her stomach so her uterus is pulled down by gravity while she is being taken from behind. In an office setting a few reams of copy paper can be placed under her hips to adjust the height of her vagina to meet the needs of her partner and a roll of Mylar sheeting can be used to prevent staining the carpet. At home folded blankets or hard pillows work well for hip adjustment. Fasteners, our casino’s bondage boutique, sells colored nylon line and rope of various sizes for hog tying as well as a complete line of stainless steel chains, collars, cuffs, locks, clamps and spreader bars. Since the recession began the demand for up-market BDSM has increased at least four fold just as it has for the Escort trade so it is difficult to get and train enough talented women to fill the need. This shortage has led a few entrepreneurs to enter the market to get a piece of the BDSM surge.

The second job: Some office girls bring a change of clothes and a pair of ballet boots to work in a boot bag. They could be going to the gym after work, staying late to help a friend with an after hours project or going to their evening job as a boot-girl in a BDSM salon. A pretty woman who loves adventure can make good money as a boot-girl in a BDSM salon as long as her health and looks last. With the number of office towers and condos in foreclosure here there is a lot of space with lovely views of the Strip. Some of it is being used for BDSM salons and for the most part that seems to be working without major problems. There was the recent instance where a girl in pointe boots and a House of Harlot white latex catsuit with a spreader bar clamped to her ankles went off a balcony on the 23 floor of one of the towers. How she managed it no one is quite sure. Fortunately she landed on the pool surround on the pool patio at the fourth floor level and not in the street. Even in heavy rubber the 19 floor drop burst her suit like a balloon and she splattered. After we collected the pieces building maintenance had to work with buckets of a quicklime paste to remove the stains. That she was able to get away from her Domme and escape - in a manner of speaking - says a lot about the level of attention to detail from that Mistress. The Families closed her salon down as a hazard to tourism and she is in confinement indefinitely in heavy rubber. Taryn and I cleaned up the mess. There was nothing the girl was wearing - she was on birth control pills so she had no vaginal protection and her HOH suit was ruined - that either of us wanted.