Fifty Shades of Grey – not a single book has divided the erotica and BDSM community more in the last fifty years as this one. Yes, I have read it – more than once. Do I think it’s ‘bad’ for the erotica and bondage lifestyle? In a way, yes. Did I enjoy reading it? Kind of. Am I riding out the insane popularity of this set of novels like the cash cow rodeo that it is? OF COURSE I AM!

I’m not joking in the slightest when I say that every single employer I have worked with in the last three months wants pieces relating to the 50 Shades novels. People who I have contracted with in the past who have NO connection to BDSM are trying to find ways to get the traffic from the Fifty Shades phenomenon. I’ve even bought into the hype and dabbled with my own possible way to cash in (outside of my writing, of course).

Credit to @HypnoPeter on Twitter for this image!

In the last 90 days, I have:

• Rewritten Fifty Shades of Grey scenes in order to make them more ‘hardcore’ and ‘lifestyle friendly’ for BDSM porn sites, as a guide for their movies
• Added Fifty Shades themed keywords to existing sex toy descriptions to hook into the Google traffic
• Created shopping lists and how-to guides for sex toy web sites trying to get the attention of new shoppers
• Designed and ghostblogged an entire new website from the point of view of a ‘first time reader’ for another sex toy shop (with posts pointing them in the direction of their store)
• Ghostwritten two fan-fic style erotica novels using the 50 Shades characters to be sold on Amazon
• Started my own affiliate web site for a major bondage furniture web site using a Fifty Shades theme

I kinda feel like a bit of a whore about this whole thing. Fifty Shades is this awfully written book that is spreading misconceptions about the bondage and dominance community, yet I’m playing it out for every single penny it can give me.