For the past six years or so, the teen fiction publishing industry has been utterly corrupted by the 'tribute' phenomenon; 'tribute' meaning 'rip-off'. When the TWILIGHT novels hit, (or rather when the films hit) suddenly the bookshops of the world were choking on any old junk featuring a tight T-shirt wearing supernatural hunk in some sort of star-crossed relationship with a misunderstood girl next door. Anything and everything seeming to fit this format was flying onto the shelves, and to a degree, still is.
Now, as if the FIFTY SHADES books weren't enough of a blot on the landscape (their success would be fine, if they were actually, you know, well written), the 'tributes' to these are joining them thick and fast now; IN TOO DEEP, BARED TO YOU, HAVEN OF OBEDIENCE, each with fairly shameless grey-toned cover. And FIFTY SHADES started as a TWILIGHT fan fiction novel, God help us!
If the printed industry doesn't start caring again about publishing only on the quality of writing, rather than whatever junk mansucript fits the latest arrow-narrow trend, it has only itself to blame for its shaky future.
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