The law of unintended consequences is an interesting topic in its own right, with perhaps the most well known example being the unexpected use of text messaging on mobile telephones.
The latest example according to David Sexton in the Evening Standard is the way e-book readers have allowed more women to read adult fiction. Apparently the lack of a racy cover and give-away title when reading a discretely packaged Amazon Kindle or Apple iPad, allows more and more women to indulge their tastes in public. No longer do they need to fear the snorts of derision or disapproving looks as they plough their way through the latest Bodice ripper.
Apparently the growth in e-books (one in eight of adult fiction books is now purchased digitally) has allowed for a rapid growth in what some call ‘Mommy porn‘, or literotica.
The UK market leader in this genre is E L James and her début adult romance novel Fifty Shades of Grey. According to her official website;
E L James is a TV executive, wife and mother-of-two based in West London. Since early childhood she dreamed of writing stories that readers would fall in love with, but put those dreams on hold to focus on her family and her career. She finally plucked up the courage to put pen to paper with her first novel, Fifty Shades of Grey.
It is claimed 250,000 copies have already been sold in different formats, and has topped the New York Times Bestseller list.
So, the next time you see a fellow commuter looking a bit hot and bothered, it may not be due to the faulty heating system on the train, but caused by something hot and steamy in her e-book reader.
Thanks for this post. Obviously, I had experienced that certain policies had results which weren’t planned, but didn’t know that there was a theorist who had given it such a nice name: unintended consequences. I’m also intrigued by the fact which you illustrate that ebooks _hide_ what someone is reading, and that _this_ could be an USP for ebooks!
(on a practical note: the first link seems to be broken; for a quick fix, maybe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unintended_consequences will do?)
Many thanks for your spot cg474, you read my mind with regard to the link. Neil