There have been a spate of articles attempting to codify what this all means for women. Now, there's the true-life memoir, Diary of a Submissive, out today from Penguin, by the pseudonymou Sophie Morgan. The book is being called 'the 'real' Fifty Shades of Grey ': 'a memoir that offers the real story of what it means to be a submissive, following Sophie's story as she progresses from her early erotic experiences through to experimenting with her newfound, awakened sexuality.' It's certainly not the only true-life tale of BDSM, but it's a comparison the rare publisher could resist given the market. There have been purposeful parodies and the cases of mistaken identity, books that have gotten a sales pick-me-up based on Shades without ever meaning to. (Just today came the news that it had been bumped by Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl in e-book sales. Don't worry, Fifty Shades still has an overall lock on things.) But with popularity, and/or hype, comes plenty of reaction, including our own here at The Atlantic Wire. Along with all the opinions, there have been numerous books with similar themes, similar covers, similar plots.

It's dominated the best-seller lists all summer.

Since its release in the United States, that initially self-published little trilogy called Fifty Shades of Grey has sold more than 30 million copies.

Fifty shades of grey the contract