By Zanub Saeed
Right off the heels of best-selling series "Fifty Shades of Grey," the rights to which have already been sold for a film franchise adaptation for $5 million, other publishers are trying to make a profit off the current wave of "erotic romance" novels.
Publishing companies like Berkley Books has jumped right on the consumers' desire to read more adult and erotic books, said USA Today in a new report. Berkley themselves released a title called "Bared to You," by Sylvia Day, which tells the tale of an "erotic obsession," the newspaper noted, and has already climbed up to the top 10 list of USA Today's Best-Selling Books list (the top four spots are currently behind held by the "Fifty Shades of Grey" series by E.L. James - both as individual books and as the three-book bundle package).
To add to the allure of Day's new book, the cover was even repackaged, said USA Today, to look similar to "Fifty Shades of Grey"'s now famous silver tie book cover; "Bared to You" features silver and gold cufflinks. The "Bared to You" book so far has sold over 100,000 book copies since its release in May, and has had a first printing of 500,000 sets.
"Everyone in publishing was trying to figure out what the Fifty Shades of Grey fans would read next," Berkley Books publisher Leslie Gelbman told USA Today. "When we discovered Bared to You, we knew it had the potential to be the next erotic romance breakthrough."
Another publisher commented on how "Fifty Shades of Grey" will allow for other books of the same genre will surface as it is currently the hottest trend. Judith Curr of Atria Books used to write erotic novels herself, under the name Zane, and has gone so far to start up Strebor Books and her own television series on cable premium network Cinemax called "Zane's Sex Chronicles," said USA Today.
Curr agreed that there will be an "explosion of erotica titles because everyone will want to catch that wave. But not all of them will make it onto the best-seller lists," she told USA Today.
May Chen from HarperCollins was a bit more skeptical on how well other books may due given "Fifty Shades of Grey"'s current momentum, and thinks like the "Twilight" and "Harry Potter" series and franchises, this may just have been one-off in terms of success in a particular genre.
"James hit a nerve," she told USA Today. "It was an amazing moment, and it worked perfectly."
