This document summarizes key findings from a survey of 83 readers of the Fifty Shades novel series. It discusses who the readers were, how they heard about and read the books, their reasons for reading them, and how they engaged in discussions about the books both online and offline. Many readers were motivated by curiosity given the widespread popularity and conversation about the books. Social media and word-of-mouth were major factors in learning about and discussing the books. Both positive and negative recommendations prompted many to read in order to form their own opinions.

1. Reader
Responses
to Fifty
Shades
Ruth Deller, Sheffield Hallam University
(r.a.deller@shu.ac.uk; @ruthdeller)
and Clarissa Smith, University of Sunderland

2. Introduction
• [It] is not to say that we view Fifty Shades…
and their sexual content as beyond
criticism, or parody. It is, however, important
to recognize the various distinctions being
offered in the different critiques, few of which
acknowledged any defensible pleasures in
reading James’ works… critiques reflect a
denigration of ‘women’s genres’ and the 'chat'
they produce. (Deller and Smith, forthcoming)

3. Introduction
• Survey of 83 readers: 81 female, 2 male.
• Hosted online, snowball sampling via
Facebook, Twitter and blogs.
• Series of questions including: motivations for
reading; opinions of the books, characters and
events; Fifty Shades and readers’ sex lives;
modes of reading; talk about the novels.
• Mixture of quantitative and qualitative data.
• Still working through some of it!

4. Who is reading Fifty Shades?
• 84% heterosexual/straight; 4% bisexual; 4% other
(asexual, masturbate); 8% did not disclose. None
identified as gay, lesbian or queer.
• 75% in a relationship; 55% married.
• Age 21-53.
• Range of occupations – many professionals.
• Most lived in the UK, one in Eire, three in the
USA, one in New Zealand and one Australia.
• 24% regular romance readers; 14% regular
erotica readers. 59% had read romance before
and 39% erotica.

5. How did you hear about Fifty Shades?
• Facebook (23%)
• TV, newspapers and radio (21%)
• Friends (19%)
• Twitter (10%)
• Colleagues (9%)
• Other web platforms, (blogs, forums and
Tumblr) (9%).

6. How did you read Fifty Shades?
• 55% read in paperback
• 42% had read in ebook format:
– Kindle or similar e-reader device (21%)
– mobile phone or tablet apps (13%)
– computers/laptops (8%).
• All had read Fifty Shades of Grey
• 58% had read Fifty Shades Darker
• 51% had read Fifty Shades Freed

7. How did you read Fifty Shades?
• 40% bought books online
• 20% from a supermarket
• 12% from a bookshop
• 17% borrowed from friends/family
• 6% were given it
• 6% got it for free by other means
• Two purchased ‘elsewhere’, one borrowed
from a library

8. The visibility of Fifty Shades
• 68% Facebook
• 66% Bookshops
• 61% Supermarkets
• 43% Online shopping sites
• 41% Twitter
• 37% Newspapers
• 33% Radio
• 26% Television
• 23% Blogs
• 24% News websites
• 16% Online forums
• 10% Other websites
• 8% Tumblr
• 4% Adult shops

9. Reasons for its popularity
• It has allowed women's sexuality to be
brought into the mainstream. It allows for
women to be more sexually curious or
adventurous and lets them be more sexually
expressive (Reader 87)
• Women got to read erotica in public and it
made talking about sex at the water cooler
acceptable at work (Reader 38)

10. Reasons for its popularity
• It made a lot of people feel that their sexual
preferences were justified and gave them a
chance to discuss these in an open arena
whilst hiding behind the premise of discussing
the book. (Reader 18)
• I think it has bought erotica in to the
mainstream and shown that it can be done
tastefully. (Reader 23)

11. Reasons for its popularity
• It provides a relationship for women to fantasise
about having and some escapism from the
familiarity of their own relationship. It's a simple
love story which women can read about and is
one of the first mainstream examples of women's
erotica. (Reader 52)
• people like sex but are embarrassed to talk about
it. The book made sex accessible and acceptable
to talk about. Also the "shock factor" was
intriguing to people. People also like "keep up
with the jones‘ (Reader 84)

12. Reasons for its popularity
• The fact they were selling in the grocery stores
for only £3 each. The over - hype. discussions -
everyone wanted to read and discuss them, to
give their own opinions. (Reader 65)
• ebooks. you can read it on your kindle and
nobody knows that you're reading it! The
classy covers also help because they don't
look like genre fiction, more like literary
fiction. (Reader 5)

13. Reasons for its popularity
• Because it started with a strong fan base as an
'underground success' if you like. The internet
and very active Twilight communities allowed
word to spread quickly and easily. Being able to
buy it on Kindle did enable more people to buy it
who might otherwise have been too embarrassed
too. Facebook and twitter took it viral and
suddenly everyone else wants to know what the
fuss is about. Someone makes a documentary
about it, the Daily Mail run an article a day about
it telling us it is a run away success and thus it
becomes so... (Reader 9)

14. Being ‘in’ on the conversation
For Radway’s readers, reading the romance
functioned as a ‘declaration of independence’
(Radway, 1984: 11), for ours, it becomes clear that
reading Fifty Shades is, in part, a declaration of
participation – participation in the phenomenon
itself but one which also brings particular pleasures
through the taking up of a position on the
quality, sexiness or importance of the texts. More
particularly, they were positioned as for women.
Written by a woman, from a woman’s point of view
and for a female audience… to read them was to
engage in public debate about female sexuality.
(Deller and Smith, forthcoming)

15. Being ‘in’ on the conversation
• 69% of readers cited ‘curiosity’ or ‘needing to
know what the fuss was about’ as their key
motivations for reading.
• Resisted for a while then gave in to see what
the fuss was about (Reader 64)
• I was so sick of hearing about this book that I
just had to find out for myself what it was all
about (Reader 70)

16. Being ‘in’ on the conversation
• 67% of survey respondents had discussed the series
either ‘a little’ or ‘a lot’ more than other books.
• Every respondent had discussed the books with other
people via some means:
– 77% face-to-face with family or friends
– 63% face to face with a partner
– 62% with friends and family online
– 48% with work colleagues
– 43% with friends or family via telephone or text message,
– 12% at a book club
– 12% via another hobby or activity
– 6% with other parents at school
– 2% with members of a religious community

17. Being ‘in’ on the conversation
• Social media were key for many:
– On Facebook, 41% had shared, commented on or
liked others’ posts relating to the books, 39% had
discussed them on a page or in a group, 34% had
made a status update about them.
– 24% had discussed them on Twitter, and 12% had
followed relevant hashtags.
– 5% had blogged about them and another 5% had
discussed them on internet forums.
– Four readers had blogged or shared about them
on Tumblr and two had created Fifty Shades
boards on Pinterest.

18. Being ‘in’ on the conversation
• A group of us at work ripped through all three books
at the same time. Naturally we were all female. The
jokes, incredulity and humour that arose was
incredibly bonding (emotionally not with cable ties)
(Reader 17)
• Only read part of the first one to see what the fuss
was about, decided it was rubbish and stopped
reading (Reader 39)
• if it wasn't for them probably wouldn't have known
about the books as soon as I did. They all told me how
great they were and that I should read them! (Reader
16)

19. Being ‘in’ on the conversation
• An entire FB group was created to discuss the
book and share stories from around the
internet. (Reader 31)
• I made up my own mind to read these books. I
am always warey of what others say as I have
often done something on their
recommendation, only to be disappointed with
outcome (Reader 69)
• I read them as I needed to see it for myself
rather than rely on others comments (Reader
87)

20. Being ‘in’ on the conversation
• It was the fact that a close friend and colleague
had read it and had a copy that finally
prompted me to read it, notwithstanding the
less than ringing endorsement: "It's awful. You
will hate everything about it. But you have to
read it.“ (Reader 54)

21. Loving to hate
• What is unusual in the case of Fifty Shades is
that the ‘recommendations’ were often
incredibly negative about the object – here was
a book you must read but weren’t really
supposed to like, in fact, the best response was
to be superior, to recognize its failures as a
novel, its inability to get the sex or BDSM
relationship ‘right’ and particularly, its failure
to be properly erotic. (Deller and
Smith, forthcoming)

22. Loving to hate
• For such people, the point of reading the
[Twilight] books is to enter the discourse of
mockery, to use the energy provided by the
giddiness to dislocate themselves from the
shame through a jubilant abjection of the
text… They are skilled close readers, and savvy
enough about literature and the politics of
ideology to be able to explain why they do not
like the series. However, the anti-fan, unlike
the disinterested reader, finds she cannot help
but continue reading (Goletz 2012: 147).

23. Loving to hate
• Pleasures of anti-fandom (see Gray, 2010;
Goletz, 2012; Gilbert, 2012; Harman and
Jones, forthcoming) – reading it to share in the
‘mocking’.
• Resistance to the ‘hate’ – reading in spite of it.
• I figured it couldn't be as bad as everyone said
when it had sold so many copies. Had to check
for myself... People said it was poorly written
erotica… It was poorly written erotica (Reader
77)

24. What is so bad?
• Umm... predictable. I hated it when she got pregnant
that made me really angry. But it's a traditional Mills
and Boon, really, it's just working how all those books
always work - crazy sex, stable
relationship, marriage, baby, crazy sex while married.
(Reader 10)
• Not really any different to any other romance genre
novel and its clearly trying to be Jane Eyre (and failing).
(Reader 5)
• It was just another love story in which the woman was
weak and needed to be saved by a man. Boring...
(Reader 88)
• Far fetched and very unlikely but that's what romance
readers want isn't it? (Reader 64)

25. What is so bad?
• I was surprised how quickly this sex became boring.
And MOST OFFENSIVE?? No woman comes every
time, and no woman comes on demand. That part
actually made me angry pretty quickly. Big turn off. It
was okay but got increasingly more boring. When you
start praying for some anal sex (Chekov's Gun! He
mentioned anal and then never did it), you know a
book has turned you into a cold monster. (Reader 30)
• The attempts to link them to Grey's childhood
frustrated me as I don't think there needs to be
justification for someone to have dominating
tendencies. (Reader 18)

26. Responses to Anastasia
• I hate her intensely. She is so moronic and wet. And I
hate her internal monologue. If I hear about her salsa-
ing internal goddess one more time I shall scream! I
also hate the way that all of her limits are hard limits
but she will not acknowledge Christian's hard limits
and feels that she must demolish them. (Reader 5)
• She was pathetic, petulant and self-obsessed. She
seemed to keep trying to convince us (and CG) that
she was independent when in fact she was a foolish
little girl. I imagine they'd be divorced in 10 years as
Grey could do better. Ana was too demanding, self-
obsessed and insecure. (Reader 18)

27. Responses to Anastasia
• I liked her character even though she was naive and
rather geeky, but I can relate to that. She was ordinary
and ended up with an extraordinary life, which is
generally everything a girl dreams of so I was rather
jealous! (Reader 2)
• She has more balls than Bella Swan, her lip biting and
inner goddess monologues came across as funnier
and self knowing in the original. Sometimes in 50
shades she comes across as just wet. (Reader 9)

28. Responses to Christian
• If someone bought me a new car after the first date
I'd assume they were 4 dates away from going psycho.
(Reader 42)
• [Christian] seemed like an odd mix between abusive
and harmless. His stalking tendencies were genuinely
disturbing, but his dark secret (the Red Room of Pain)
was rather vanilla compared to what I was expecting.
(Reader 11)
• Christian comes across as a sexual predator with
unresolved psychological issues, who preys on an
innocent / easily malleable young woman. (Reader
51)

29. Responses to Christian
• He's pretty much the perfect man in my opinion! He's
a extremely attractive, a sexual expert, very
intelligent, obscenely rich and powerful and obsessed
with Ana's happiness and safety! He does, of
course, have issues with control etc and a murky past
but I think the good certainly out weighs the
bad, especially as there are good reasons for his less
admirable attributes. (Reader 2)
• I found him appealing, desirable and admirable. His
character had far more depth than Ana and I would
have much rather heard his internal monologue than
hers. (Reader 18)

30. What was so good?
• Any story that advocates a man being so in love with any
ordinary, although quite physically attractive, girl is quite
appealing! (Reader 2)
• I liked the romance side and liked the fact that Ana
managed to win Christian round to a relationship… After a
while the sexual parts became just a small part of the
story for me (a bit like an added extra) because I was just
so engrossed in the storyline and their blossoming
romance. (Reader 67)
• A relationship I fantasise about having! The sweeping off
one's feet and falling so in love that that person
completely changes your life and becomes your
everything. (Reader 52)

31. What was so good?
• Words more erotic than pictures, the acts being described
were appealing. (Reader 17)
• Some of it was good. Some was fantastic. I don't go for all
the extreme stuff, but it definitely held my interest. :)
(Reader 80)
• It was really enjoyable. I think it was hyped up to be
[more] "full-on" that [sic] it really was. When you first
read the sex part of the contract you are lead to believe
you would read sex scenes of that nature but it really was
more about the teasing and dominating nature of
Christian. (Reader 23)

32. Sex and Fifty Shades
• 86% of these said the books had influenced their attitudes
to sex in some way.
• 67% found them a turn-on.
• 87% had heard of BDSM before reading the books and
38% had previously engaged in BDSM practices.
• 22% said the books had encouraged them to try (further)
BDSM practices.
• 24% had used the books in their personal masturbation or
fantasy.
• One woman said she had used them with her partner
• Two had bought new sex toys since reading them.

33. Complex readings
• Reader 2 enjoyed the romance yet called
James’ writing ‘appallingly terrible in some
places’
• Reader 67 complains about the repetitive
nature of the writing but even though ‘I didn't
find the book to be particularly well written in
the literary sense, it didn't detract from my
enjoyment of the book’
• Reader 53 found them ‘boring’ and ‘repetitive’
and would not re-read them, but had read all
three books and considered them a turn-on.

34. Complex readings
• Covers as clever and subversive – yet everyone
knows what they are!
• Subversive nature of e-Books
• Acknowledgement of the complications
associated with the series without denying the
pleasures of reading and participating in the
discursive culture around them.

35. References
• Deller, RA and Smith, C (forthcoming) ‘Reading the BDSM Romance: Reader
Responses to Fifty Shades’, Sexualities
• Gilbert, A (2012), Between Twi-Hards and Twi-Haters: The Complicated
Terrain of Online "Twilight" Audience Communities. In: Morey, A
(ed), Genre, Reception, and Adaptation in the "Twilight" Series. Farnham:
Ashgate Publishing: 163-179.
• Goletz, S W (2012) The Giddyshame Paradox: Why Twilight's 'Anti-Fans
Cannot Stop Reading a Series They (Love to) Hate. In: Morey, A
(ed), Genre, Reception, and Adaptation in the "Twilight" Series. Farnham:
Ashgate Publishing: 147-162.
• Gray, J (2010) Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers and Other Media
Paratexts, New York: New York University Press.]
• Harman, S and Jones, B (forthcoming) ‘Fifty Shades of Ghey’
• Radway, J A (1984) Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy and Popular
Literature. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press.