<P> Over the next few days, Ana receives several packages from Christian . These include a laptop to enable her to research the BDSM lifestyle in consideration of the contract; to communicate with him, since she has never previously owned a computer; and to receive a more detailed version of the dominant / submissive contract . She and Christian email each other, with Ana teasing him and refusing to honour parts of the contract, such as only eating foods from a specific list . Ana later meets with Christian to discuss the contract and becomes overwhelmed by the potential BDSM arrangement and the potential of having a sexual relationship with Christian that is not romantic in nature . Because of these feelings, Ana runs away from Christian and does not see him again until her college graduation, where he is a guest speaker . During this time, Ana agrees to sign the dominant / submissive contract . Ana and Christian once again meet to further discuss the contract, and they go over Ana's hard and soft limits . Christian spanks Ana for the first time, and the experience leaves her both enticed and slightly confused . This confusion is exacerbated by Christian's lavish gifts and the fact that he brings her to meet his family . The two continue with the arrangement without Ana's having yet signed the contract . After successfully landing a job with Seattle Independent Publishing (SIP), Ana further bristles under the restrictions of the non-disclosure agreement and her complex relationship with Christian . The tension between Ana and Christian eventually comes to a head after Ana asks Christian to punish her in order to show her how extreme a BDSM relationship with him could be . Christian fulfils Ana's request, beating her with a belt, and Ana realises they are incompatible . Devastated, she leaves Christian and returns to the apartment she shares with Kate . </P> <P> The Fifty Shades trilogy was developed from a Twilight fan fiction series originally titled Master of the Universe and published episodically on fan - fiction websites under the pen name "Snowqueen's Icedragon". The piece featured characters named after Stephenie Meyer's characters in Twilight, Edward Cullen and Bella Swan . After comments concerning the sexual nature of the material, James removed the story from the fan - fiction websites and published it on her own website, FiftyShades.com . Later she rewrote Master of the Universe as an original piece, with the principal characters renamed Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele and removed it from her website before publication . Meyer commented on the series, saying "that's really not my genre, not my thing...Good on her--she's doing well . That's great!" </P> <P> This reworked and extended version of Master of the Universe was split into three parts . The first, titled Fifty Shades of Grey, was released as an e-book and a print on demand paperback in May 2011 by The Writers' Coffee Shop, a virtual publisher based in Australia . The second volume, Fifty Shades Darker, was released in September 2011; and the third, Fifty Shades Freed, followed in January 2012 . The Writers' Coffee Shop had a restricted marketing budget and relied largely on book blogs for early publicity, but sales of the novel were boosted by word - of - mouth recommendation . The book's erotic nature and perceived demographic of its fan base as being composed largely of married women over thirty led to the book being dubbed "Mommy Porn" by some news agencies . The book has also reportedly been popular among teenage girls and college women . By the release of the final volume in January 2012, news networks in the United States had begun to report on the Fifty Shades trilogy as an example of viral marketing and of the rise in popularity of female erotica, attributing its success to the discreet nature of e-reading devices . Due to the heightened interest in the series, the license to the Fifty Shades trilogy was picked up by Vintage Books for re-release in a new and revised edition in April 2012 . The attention that the series has garnered has also helped to spark a renewed interest in erotic literature . Many other erotic works quickly became best - sellers following Fifty Shade's success, while other popular works, such as Anne Rice's The Sleeping Beauty trilogy, have been reissued (this time without pseudonyms) to meet the higher demand . </P> <P> On 1 August 2012, Amazon UK announced that it had sold more copies of Fifty Shades of Grey than it had the entire Harry Potter series combined, making E.L. James its best - selling author, replacing J.K. Rowling, though worldwide the Harry Potter series sold more than 450 million copies compared with Fifty Shades of Grey's sales of 60 million copies . </P>

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