The erotic novel "Fifty Shades of Grey" has spawned a merchandising frenzy by selling everything from fragrance, bedding, stationary, ball gags to silver ties.

News that E.L. James, the author of the "Fifty Shades of Grey" trilogy, has just signed a big-bucks deal with a global licensing agent to market related merchandise should not surprise anyone who was masochistic enough to finish the over-hyped literary blockbusters.

"Fifty Shades of Grey" chronicles the romantic/erotic relationship between naïve-yet-spirited Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey, an enigmatic, controlling, jaw-dropping handsome billionaire who introduces Steele to soft-core S&M and a luxurious lifestyle. The trilogy's novels, which rocketed to the top of the New York Times' bestseller's list and have stayed there for over three months, brought BDSM to the MSM and ushered in the odious "mommy porn" genre.

However, the strongest indicator of the "Fifty Shades of Grey" consumer effect has to be the hardware stores reporting to an upswing with women buying rope, presumably to tether objects in the boudoir, not the basement. With that, no one can blame James for signing a deal which will give her a piece of the frenzy that she created.

Meanwhile, name-checking of luxury goods in novels is now so common that it has become a social signifier. So, it is in "Fifty Shades of Grey." Impoverished literature student Ana, who works part-time in a hardware store, drives a beat up VW Beetle and drinks Twinings English Breakfast tea while rich mogul, Christian, drives a fleet of Audis. In the book, there are also countless shout-outs to Converse, Apple, BlackBerry, Bollinger La Grande Année Rosé 1999 and Ray-Ban.

This has become a trend that Brett Easton Ellis pioneered in his 1991 Yuppie killer novel "American Psycho." In 2001, British author Fay Wheldon gave a shock when she signed a deal with jewelry house BVLGARI to mention its products 14 times in a novel. Now, James's "Fifty Shades of Grey," which was written originally as the "Twilight" fan fiction, offers the perfect erotic-consumption symbiosis and it even served up an audience that has already shown their willingness to buy anything.

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