Thread by @Jenny_Trout

I also want to real quick touch on Jen Frederickson's allegation that I copied E.L. James's Fifty Shades Of Grey with my book, The Boss, because I'm not sure she heard me way up there on her high horse last night and I want to make sure everyone gets the message.

I began an indepth recap/review of the Fifty Shades of Grey series on my blog back in probably 2011 or 2012. I don't remember the exact date. As anyone does when something they like is criticized, many 50SoG fans responded by saying they would like to see me do it better.

I announced in December of 2013 (sorry for the pause, I was checking the dates) that I was writing The Boss specifically to prove that BDSM romance could exist without falling into the abuse and consent issues in 50SoG and Crossfire.

The Boss was posted in serial form on a separate blog, but at no point did I hide my identity. People knew that the author of The Boss was the blogger doing the 50SoG recaps. That's called transparency and honesty.

To address whether or not I ripped-off the plot of 50SoG, I'm fully willing to do a side-by-side comparison here. Let's start with 50SoG:

Hero: Christian Grey, 27yro billionaire who does...IDK, something with starvation in African countries? It's not really explained.

Heroine: Ana Steele, 22yro recent college graduate. English major. Virgin who has never even masturbated before.
Plot: After a 15 min. interview, Ana falls desperately in love with Christian, who doesn't "do" romance but does "do" women who look like his negligent mother.

Side characters: Ana's friends and family, who are quickly separated from her by Christian, who is intent on isolating her. Christian himself has no friends or healthy relationships.

Resolution of the first book: After asking Christian to show her what he *really* wants to do to her, Christian beats Ana with a belt and provides no aftercare. Subdropping hard (though it is framed as disgust for kink), Ana flees his apartment.

Now, let's do The Boss, so everyone can see the similarities between the two books that were intentionally written to be polar opposites:

Hero: Neil Elwood, 48yro billionaire from old money and whose personal fortune was made in publishing.

Heroine: Sophie Scaife, 24yro assistant to the editor of a Vogue-esque fashion magazine and who has an active sex life owing to her life-changing one-night stand with the hero when was she was 18 (and lying to him about her age).

Plot: After a corporate takeover that throws the pair together again, Neil and Sophie embark on a no-strings sexual relationship based on their prior interaction and sexual chemistry, despite Neil's misgivings about their age difference.

Side Characters: Both the heroine and hero have friends with whom they continue to interact with independently and without jealousy or possessiveness for the duration of the series.

Resolution of the first book: After their relationship becomes romantic, Neil has a health scare that forces him to examine whether or not their relationship is healthy or beneficial for Sophie and he breaks up with her.

When we compare the rest of the two series, 50 features conflicts like: a helicopter crash, an abusive childhood, two stalkers, a kidnapping, and tons of jealousy on the part of the hero.

The Boss's conflicts are: cancer, rape trauma, mental illness, addiction, suicide attempts, and the heroine's difficulty reconciling her life in the 1% compared to the poverty of her childhood.

As you can see, my series and 50 Shades are *clearly* identical.

What's extra funny about Jen Frederickson accusing me of copying 50 Shades is that several of the books were reviewed on Dear Author (not by her) in reviews that, if memory serves, point out the intentional differences between the two series.

So, before anyone else decides to accuse me lifting from 50 Shades of Grey in order to protect an author who is more successful (read: more potentially useful to your career than I am), you might want to consider not trying that bullshit.