IF YOU HAVE been fervently re-reading your copies of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy to try and capture the thrill of first devouring it, we have some news for you.
One of the latest erotic series to capture people’s attention is Hacker, by Meredith Wild – and the self-published author has just signed a $7 million book deal.
It’s with Forever, a romance imprint of Hachette Book Group.
Best-seller lists
Though the Hacker series has already appeared on numerous best-seller lists, this deal is going to make it even bigger news.
Forever is to reissue the four current Hacker books as e-books this week, and as paperbacks on May 12.
The fifth and final book, Hard Love, is coming out in September. Wild’s agent, Kimberly Brower, told AP the deal was worth $7 million.
According to Forever, the series not only has sold more than 1 million e-books, but also around 200,000 copies in paper, which is somewhat of a rarity for self-published works.
The Hacker narrative is a little familiar:
Recent Harvard graduate and Internet entrepreneur Erica Hathaway falls for controlling billionaire Blake Landon.
Like EL James, Wild – who lives in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in the US – is married, and has three children. She describes herself as a “techie, whiskey-appreciator and hopeless romantic”, and she holds a BA in English from Smith College.
With over 132,000 likes on Facebook and 22k followers on Twitter, Wild could see her fanbase rocketing now that she’s with Hachette.
Because as Fifty Shades proved, there is certainly a huge appetite out there for erotic fantasy novels written by and for women.
As for whether the series will be turned into a movie or TV show, Wild says that “anything is possible” – which means watch this space.
Would you read a Meredith Wild book?
- With additional reporting from AP
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