Her Magazine is New Zealand’s only women’s business lifestyle magazine! Her Magazine highlights the achievements of successful and rising New Zealand businesswomen. Her Magazine encourages a healthy work/life balance.
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like Fifty Shades of Grey. There are literally millions of people around the world that have read this book and I am flummoxed by its popularity. EL James���s Fifty Shades of Grey has become the fastest adult paperback novel to sell one million print copies. The first in the erotic trilogy passed the million mark in 11 weeks, smashing the previous record of 36 weeks set by Dan Brown���s The Da Vinci Code. The book also broke the weekly record for paperback sales, selling 397,889 copies, according to Nielsen Bookscan. What interested me, after reading Fifty Shades of Grey, was that I could not see anything particularly clever or new about this book. Why then has there been a massive reader buy-in, catapulting it to become one of the most successful books in history? ���Is it because of our intrinsic need to dominate men? I doubt it,������ I said to one live spark that was proffering a reason to my often asked question. I believe it has simply given women permission to read and enjoy content like this. My partner, Tony, sat beside a lady on a flight from Ireland to the UK who was devouring the third book while her husband and kids occupied the three seats over the aisle. ���Should I be worried?������ he asked. I reflected on the way I chose to read this book in public with the cover trapped between my legs. ���Possibly,������ I replied! Content that was traditionally a little bit ���dirty��� (for want of a better word) had suddenly become mainstream, and I suppose there are a few of us that have been married for too long and possibly like the idea of having a sex life as adventurous as detailed in this book. It has even given us permission to have general conversation on some of the sexual activity that occurs and as an add-on, has possibly been an incredibly good thing for the sex shop sales. Mummy porn is okay ��� it has been normalized! Naturally now, (given my ever enquiring manner) I���m asking myself how I can sex up my frocks. It���s hard for someone like myself to look at a successful platform and not want to try to bring a little bit of that magic into our retail environment. ���Have a book club night and they can all bring along their copy and discuss what they like?��� suggested one of my well intending team��� just imagine it! No, not a great idea but it did start me thinking, what about we capitalize on this and teach women how to dress to celebrate their inner goddess? And surely we all have a version of this goddess just busting to appear. When I���ve spoken to large groups of women, no matter the demographic, the anticipated highlight is always the Chameleon dress demonstration or the small show and tell of frocks that I use to wrap up my presentation. I���m often amazed at the way in which the simple things continue to entertain. Regardless of my speech content the frocks will often prove to be the best icebreaker. This is especially prevalent on the publishing side of my business. People would rather buy Woman���s Day than many other capable mags. I have to admit I am a closet reader myself. If I ever find a trashy woman���s magazine in the Koru Lounge, I usually stash it to read in a quiet space later because I���d hate to be seen reading it publicly yet the content will always have a level of interest. We develop this insatiable appetite for wanting to know if Kate���s pregnant and what���s happening with Tom Cruise. It���s something that is intrinsically in us as women and I don���t think it���s such a bad thing as long as it���s not a staple diet.������ Simple messages, simple concepts, targeted at a broad demographic is the way forward if you want to ensure business success. Fifty Shades of Grey is living proof of this. Having read it (with no intentions of reading the other two books) I see it as simply having given all women permission to talk about and experience sex at a level that was previously a little taboo, even smutty. This stuff isn���t new after all. Men have been engaging in it for years. It���s now simply become okay for the girls. I suppose this explains why Kim Kardashian has more Twitter followers than Obama. And now I���m pleased to report I���ve found my niche too so that I can gently infuse some erotica bandwagon into my business model. Our Birds of a Feather stores have introduced an option to host ���50 Shades of Style��� ladies nights, where women can come and enjoy a session with our principal stylist showing them how to sex up their look; with lessons on colours to make them smoulder, how to accentuate their best assets and wardrobe makeovers to create a sexy new you! Do they have any longevity? I doubt it. In fact even initial buy in has been slow; they simply appear to prefer the tried and true styling sessions that deliver very real takeaways for them. Annah Stretton Extract from Annah Stretton���s third book, Rock the Boat.. on sale April 2013 www.h e rmagaz in e .co.n z | 53