Book Buzz: Texas women sue over 'Fifty Shades' profits

Two Texas women are suing Amanda Hayward, the owner of the Writers Coffee Shop, for a share of profits from Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James. The best-selling erotic novel was originally published by the small Australian e-book publisher, and it was already making its way up many best-selling books lists when Random House acquired it.

According to Fort Worth Weekly, the Writers Coffee Shop was founded by two women in Texas and two in Australia, and it was created as a place to write and share fan fiction, a format that exploded after Fifty Shades became popular (the book was originally conceived as Twilight fan fiction).

One of the Texas founders, Jenny Pedroza, filed suit last week in Texas state court for her share of the profits from Fifty Shades and its sequels, Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, and is joined in the suit by Christa Beebe, a former Writers Coffee Shop staffer.

The suit claims that Hayward set up a business entity for dealing with Random House, which cut Pedroza and Beebe out of the profits. The suit states, "Hayward told her partners that the partnership prospectively needed to be restructured into an entity solely owned by her for 'tax reasons.' She then fraudulently induced Pedroza and Beebe into signing 'service agreements' with TWCS, and subsequently terminated both of them."

There has been no comment from James on the suit. All three Fifty Shades books made it to the top three of USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books List. The highly anticipated film adaptation of the first novel is due out next February.