The writer had hoped for a back and forth with fans of her books, but although many of the questions posed were related to her characters and style, some followers used the webchat to bombard James with attacks on her writing talents.

One Twitter user asked. "Do you find it ironic that you write as if someone has tied you to a chair and forced you to?" while another posed the question, "Is it true that you're actually just a burlap sack full of bad ideas and spiders?"

Meanwhile, one webchat contributor asked, "When do you think your writer's block will kick in? Signed Ev R Hopeful", and another wrote: "Is it only ok for (character) Christian (Grey) to stalk, coerce, threaten & manipulate (character) Ana because he's hot, or is it also ok because he's rich?"

The theme of manipulation continued when another critic asked, "My boss said no when I asked if I could kiss him and then I did anyway because no means yes right? Things at work are awkward."