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[TempAcc]

Even the non erotic stuff seems to be really popular though. Just look at The Fault in our Stars, a infinitely stereotypical and pretentious boy-meets-girl type of young adult romance fiction (the kind that you see when 16 year olds write on fanfiction forums when they lose their internet girlfriends or something). It got immensely popular and got its own film for absolutely no reason other then marketing.

[TempAcc]

Reminder that this exists.

So does this, apparently.

And this

Edit: Alas, I have shafted my own message, curse me for double posting.

[Frumple]

It got immensely popular and got its own film for absolutely no reason other then marketing.

(the kind that you see when 16 year olds write on fanfiction forums when they lose their internet girlfriends or something

Methinks you missed your own statement.

Marketing, of course, has something to do with it, though. Publishers wanna' get the dough.

[Neonivek]

reads more like a young adult romance slash fanfiction than anything else.

And that is a large portion of why it's popular. Young adult slash fiction is incredibly prolific for a reason. Stuff that reads like it is very likely to do well if it escapes from the clutches of the rabid yaoi writers and into society at large.

E: Though now I'm suddenly curious if anyone's bothered to try to track the internet's slash fiction output. How many words per day are being released online? Hundreds of thousands? Millions? It would be an interesting statistic to follow. It would be really interesting to see what kind of seasonal etc. variance there is, among a bunch of other stuff. Someone needs to write some kind of program that collects that data.

The big drive is also that it is a HUGE "Beauty and the Beast" where Ana through constant insistence "Saves" and ultimately "Changes" Christian Grey for the better.

Transforming their TERRIBLE BDSM, As in the book depicts BDSM as a flawed system people only do to act out abuse, into loving vanilla.

So you have a large number of sexually repressed people... who even if they were in an erotic situation would probably bow out immediately for multiple reasons.

And you have a book that is basically about someone, who is totally hot and rich and handsome, who forces you to have the pleasure that you even deny yourself... But your not a slut right? So you will eventually turn him away from the dark side and change him for the better, mending his shattered psyche. Ohh and did we mention he was rich?

Believe it or not 50 shades is INCREDIBLY unspecial when it comes to romance novels at least in terms of "Rich Millionaire who is romantic but incredibly mean could have anyone, but he wants you, so you change him for the better"

[Frumple]

Pictured: 90%* of slash fiction. Reference: Naruto, Harry Potter, <insert mile long dong list of other fandoms>.

I have succinctly summarized your post, ahaha!

*This is, naturally enough, a bullshit statistic. Substitute "significant portion" at your leisure.

[TempAcc]

It got immensely popular and got its own film for absolutely no reason other then marketing.

(the kind that you see when 16 year olds write on fanfiction forums when they lose their internet girlfriends or something

Methinks you missed your own statement.

Marketing, of course, has something to do with it, though. Publishers wanna' get the dough.

Exactly, I phrased that post poorly though. I meant to use that post an example to how this kind of fiction can become hits outside of the internet. With "the fault in our stars", John Green had a way to make his book popular because he already had a pretty popular youtube channel with some strange history revisionism videos, science and things about "using the critolis" (dont ask me). Plus he had a huge tumblr following.

However, 50 shades' author apparently had none of that going for her. Did she just find a publisher and make a deal or something? Did anyone even hear about 50 shades' author before the book came out? Thats what puzzles me.

[i2amroy]

On the note of 50 Shades of Grey apparently a "nameless insider" started a rumor that the main actor was leaving the film franchise (which I find kinda unlikely given that they planned to make a trilogy from the beginning). Notably the twitter (and the media) have exploded with RIGHTOUS RAGE!!1!!.

[Neonivek]

Pictured: 90%* of slash fiction. Reference: Naruto, Harry Potter, <insert mile long dong list of other fandoms>.

I have succinctly summarized your post, ahaha!

*This is, naturally enough, a bullshit statistic. Substitute "significant portion" at your leisure.

Guess who the vast majority of slash fiction writers are...

It is actually a cultural phenomenon worth studying and the current theory I prescribe to right now is: "Slash Fiction is fulfilling a need that is currently being unfulfilled in our society"

[i2amroy]

It is actually a cultural phenomenon worth studying and the current theory I prescribe to right now is: "Slash Fiction is fulfilling a need that is currently being unfulfilled in our society"

Ehh, personally I'd say it's a combination of:
1) We greatly publicize success stories of writers
2) People want to be like their "success idols", so a fair portion of people like to write things
3) It's hard to be "original", and much easier to copy/finish things that others have started instead of making your own
4) The internet makes it easy for you to let others see your own personal works
5) Porn is popular (it's something like 1/3rd of all internet sites!)

[Neonivek]

I was talking about fanfiction or internet fiction.

[i2amroy]

Yeah, I'm saying that I don't think it's fulfilling an unfulfilled need, but is more just a side-effect of a handful of different causes in society (which I listed in my previous post).

As people have pointed out before, "slash/fiction" has been around for ages, it's just that the internet makes it easier for our culture to create some of the different causes that popularize it (and has standardized the terminology we use to describe it).

[Neonivek]

Yeah, I'm saying that I don't think it's fulfilling an unfulfilled need, but is more just a side-effect of a handful of different causes in society (which I listed in my previous post).

As people have pointed out before, "slash/fiction" has been around for ages, it's just that the internet makes it easier for our culture to create some of the different causes that popularize it (and has standardized the terminology we use to describe it).

Yes but why is it so affected by demographics?

[i2amroy]

Yes but why is it so affected by demographics?

Can you clarify the question a little bit more? What exact effect of demographics are you asking about?

[miauw62]

Sometimes people get lucky and a shitty book becomes a worldwide bestseller for no particular reason.
Happens to a lot of things. Why did Harry Potter become popular and not, say Septimus Heap? Imo it's mostly luck, but I don't remember enough of either series to draw any conclusions on quality

[TD1]

Septimus Heap is the best.

Edit: Ahhh, what is the word which means something is the best? Like, it's a literary device. "Septimus Heap is the best," what's the device? It's really bugging me, and I couldn't find a way to word it for google.