Clearly taking the huge success of E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey into consideration, Penguin Books’ Berkley imprint has signed a big deal with an unknown author of two Twilight fan-fictions.

Gabriel’s Inferno and Gabriel’s Rapture are presently available in e-book format after initially debuting on fan-fiction sites. Paperback editions are due out in the next few months with an initial run of 500,000 copies.

The Gabriel novels started under the title The University of Edward Masen. The book’s author, Sylvain Reynard, is only a pen name and no other information about him/her has been unveiled.

According to GoodReads (where the book scores a 4.06 out of 5 stars), “Professor Gabriel Emerson [the lead character] is a well respected Dante specialist by day, but by night he devotes himself to an uninhibited life of pleasure. He uses his notorious good looks and sophisticated charm to gratify his every whim, but is secretly tortured by his dark past and consumed by the profound belief that he is beyond all hope of redemption. When the sweet and innocent Julia Mitchell enrolls as his graduate student, his attraction and mysterious connection to her not only jeopardizes his career, but sends him on a journey in which his past and his present collide.”

Fifty Shades was originally a Twilight fan-fiction starring characters Edward and Bella before being picked up for broader distribution via e-book and paperback.

Thanks, Media Bistro.