E. L. James company Stampin’ Up! UK and the cards were auctioned on eBay during May 2014. E. L. James Erika Leonard (née Mitchell; born 7 March 1963), known by her pen name E. L. James, is an English author. She wrote the bestselling erotic romance trilogy "Fifty Shades of Grey", "Fifty Shades Darker", and "Fifty Shades Freed", along with the companion novels "" and ""; and under the name Snowqueen's Icedragon the Twilight fan fiction "Master of the Universe" that was the basis for the Fifty Shades trilogy. The combined novels have sold over 125 million copies worldwide, over 35 million copies
Fifty Shades (novel series) was torturous, and not in the intended, sexy kind of way". Jessica Reaves, of the "Chicago Tribune", wrote that the "book's source material isn't great literature", noting that the novel is "sprinkled liberally and repeatedly with asinine phrases", and described it as "depressing". The book garnered some accolades. In December 2012, it won both "Popular Fiction" and "Book of the Year" categories in the UK National Book Awards. In that same month, "Publishers Weekly" named E. L. James the 'Publishing Person of the Year', causing an "outcry from the literary world". For example, "What was "Publishers Weekly" thinking?" asked "Los