Rachel Kramer Bussel

How the Fifty Shades of Grey covers came to be

This is something I’ve been wondering about. From an interview with EL James at OregonLive.com:

James used to read erotic fiction (shocking, but true) when she commuted into central London on the Tube and didn’t like people staring at the racy covers, “full of torsos and women with their clothes falling off.” She tore the covers off and thought that if she ever wrote books like that, her covers would be so tasteful that nobody would know what’s inside. When that day came, she helped come up with the distinctive knotted necktie cover that was discreet until it became ubiquitous.