We all know the story by now: the worldwide erotic sensation that is the Fifty Shades Trilogy. And author E.L. James is one of the great indie success stories, taking a Twilight fan-fiction series published on the web to a Hollywood film in under five years.
For those of you who don’t know the tale, in the first installment, Fifty Shades of Grey, lit student Anastasia Steele meets Christen Grey, an enigmatic and wealthy, but tortured businessman at once “beautiful, brilliant and intimidating.” Their lust for each other is immediate, but Grey wants Anastasia his own way, and the young student is taken on a “passionately physical affair” that famously involves a bit of S&M.
Fifty Shades began its publishing life online as Masters of the Universe, before the Twilight angle was removed and the entire book reworked and split into three parts (Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed being the second and third volumes). It was first published as an e-book and print on demand paperback through virtual publisher The Writer’s Coffee Shop. But after its crazy success in this format, Vintage Books released a new edition in 2012.
So how did the cover change in the route from indie to Vintage? Not much. There’s still that iconic gray tie on the black background. But Vintage did revamp the font of the book’s title, boosting it up a couple sizes, perhaps to get a bit more attention. Though these days, the movie will probably help with that a little bit.