A Twitter Q&A with “Fifty Shades of Grey” author E L James got pretty dark on Monday.
Questions from Twitter users — who were told to use the hashtag #AskELJames to communicate with the author — mercilessly criticized her S&M series.
Queries to James ranged from, “Do you get paid per adjective?” to “Do you ever feel guilty that you made so much money from romanticizing sexual abuse?” and “[A]fter the success of ‘Grey,’ have you considered re-telling the story from the perspective of someone who can write?” And, “Is there a safe word we can use to get you to stop writing such drivel?”
Things got so bad, one user commented: “Are you getting tendinitis from having to hit ‘block’ so often,” to stop the barrage. Another asked, “Are you going to take a cold bath later to recover from being so thoroughly burned on Twitter today?”
James is likely laughing through the pain of the Q&A: Her latest book, “Grey,” sold 1.1 million copies in its first four days in the US.