AN EROTIC FAN fiction that’s been described as the One Direction version of 50 Shades of Grey has sold to US publishing giant Simon & Schuster’s Gallery Books for a six-figure sum.
The story, entitled After, has amassed 800 million reads on storytelling app Wattpad, spanning almost 300 chapters over three books.
The synopsis reads like a teen version of Pride and Prejudice:
Tessa Young is an 18-year-old college student with a simple life, excellent grades, and a sweet boyfriend. She always has things planned out ahead of time, until she meets a rude boy named Harry, with too many tattoos and piercings who shatters her plans.
After is written by a 25-year-old Texan named Anna Todd, who admits that she barely re-reads chapters before publishing them online.
In an interview with SugarScape, she said she never realised the fic was so popular until she got the book deal:
In terms of my readers, I feel like they are an extension of me, so I don’t worry about them… but when outsiders started paying attention, that’s what made it scary.
Here’s just a tiny taste of what you can expect if you choose to read the 300-chapter behemoth of fan fiction.
Lead character Tessa bemoaning Harry’s rudeness:
Harry is such a mystery to me, why must he always be so rude? And why does he have all of those books? There is no way a rude, disrespectful, tattooed jerk like Harry could possibly enjoy those amazing books. The only thing I can picture him reading is the back of a beer bottle.
Sexy time:
“You’re so sexy, Tess,” he says. The thought of dirty talk never appealed to me but somehow Harry saying those words is the most sensual and sexy thing I have ever heard.
Then Harry being rude to Tessa again:
Just because I messed around with you doesn’t mean I want anything to do with you, yet here you are leaving your boyfriend who can actually stand to be around you to come here and try to ‘help’ me. That, Theresa is the definition of pathetic.
Repeat ad infinitum.
The rights to a movie version of the book were also snapped up last month. Prepare for a 50 Shades-style takeover very soon.
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